Web Basics

There are literally millions of web pages out there, and if you are new to the Cyber World, about a million questions as well. Domain names and links and HTML and JavaScript are among the many confusing terms you'll run into if you are a novice to web. So here are some basics that will help you navigate your way through the rough waters of surfing. If you're a veteran to the Net, then skip this page altogether. This will be old hat to you.

Web Site

Simply defined, a Web Site is the cumulative total of connected web pages that a person/company has on the internet. If you were to visit the MacAddict Web Site (one of my personal favorites), you would start at their Homepage, and from there you could visit their Forum page, or their News page, or their New Products page. All of these pages (and many more not mentioned), make up a Web Site. Just as the cumulative total of chapters in a manuscript make up a book, and the cumulative total of a group of softball players make up a softball team, so the cumulative total of web pages make up a Web Site. Easy enough.

URLs

URLs are the universal resource locaters for the World Wide Web. Actually, it’s much easier to think in terms of a web address than it is a URL. A web URL or address is how you find a particular web site on the internet. A great example of a URL is http://www.christianity.net. When you type that into the URL slot at the top of your browser’s screen, you’ll travel to that site. Most companies have their own sites, so you can play around by typing in WWW.whatever.COM to see if a certain company or organization pops up. Try http://www.bible.org for a great site offering bible study materials and helps. Type in the name of any major automobile manufacturer, soda pop maker, or hollywood movie star, and you’ll probably end up on their web site. Be careful, though. Sometimes that game will take you to sites that contain pornographic material or other content not suitable for children (or adults for that matter).

Domain Names

Like a social security number, a Domain Name separates you from the millions of other web sites on the internet. When you see www.TOYOTA.com, then you know that TOYOTA.COM is their Domain Name. You can also register names with .ORG or .NET on the end. By far the dot coms are the most popular domain name ending, but more and more sites are going with dot net and dot org because the dot coms are being snatched up every second. The cost to register a name (you rent it, you don’t own it) is $15-20 per year. Harris Web Design can search what names are available, and take care of registering the name for you.

Links

As you probably could tell from the name, Links are those things that take you from one place (where you are at the present time) to another place with the click of your mouse. Most of the time a link will be a word that is underlined like this: Visit our Homepage. Or it could be a graphic, like the ones to the left of this page that say Home, Site Design, etc. When you move your mouse over an underlined word or a graphic, and the mouse pointer turns into a hand with a finger, then it’s a link. If you click it, it will take to another page on the current web site or to another place on the internet. Links are great ways to provide web surfers with quick access to other parts of your site or to other places on the web that supply information they need or desire.

HTML

HTML is the acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, the standard way in which web pages are written. It’s the universal language for the internet, much like the one language that world used to use before the folks at the Tower of Babel got too big for their britches (see Genesis chapter 11 for the complete story). If you are interested in building your site, there are plenty of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) software that will handle the HTML for you. You just type your stuff in a word processor style program and the software will handle the rest. If you are not interested in writing web pages or creating your own web site, then you don’t really need to have a working knowledge of HTML. The only benefit to knowing what HTML stands for is that you might score big on the New Trivial Pursuit or the You Don't Know Jack games.

Java Applets & JavaScript, Plug-ins, and other “Froo-Froo”

Contrary to popular belief, Java Applets and JavaScript have nothing to do with Juan Valdez or coffee grinders, and they have little to do with one another. Java is a platform-independent programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that programmers use to do a variety of things, not the least of which to create “applets” to spice up web pages. JavaScript is used to add functionality to the client side of a server, adding interactivity to web pages like processing forms and obtaining user information.

Not so long ago web sites were mostly content based; that is, they had lots of text to read but few pictures and graphics, and little to no interactive elements. But now, with JavaScript, animated GIFs, Java Applets, and Plug-ins help designers create sites that stand head and shoulders above the rest (like King Saul, 1Samuel 9:1,2).

You know those web sites where the graphics dance around, or those that have text that goes streaming across the screen like a sign behind an airplane? What about the sites those contain movie clips, or how about CNN.com where you can listen to the news? “Pop up” windows that give, or ask for, information, or even a clock with your current time, date, and year, like the one on the Harris Web Design Homepage are made possible by Java, Javascript, Plug-ins, and other “froo-froo” available to today’s web designers. Now unless you want to learn a truck load full of code and other nerdy stuff, all you need to know is that Harris Web Design can use all these and more to spice up your web site.

More questions? Email us!

I could write a small novel on the basics of the internet, and I am by no means an expert in these areas. Should you have other questions, feel free to email us here at Harris Web Design. We'll either answer the question, point you to someone who can, or say, “We don't know.” Hey, it doesn’t get any more honest than that!

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