Websites in General
A website is commonly defined as information, specifically a big file thereof, on a server connected to the world wide web, consisting of several or numerous web pages forming part of a coherent, integral whole. These web pages are in turn connected through links by the use of markup languages, the most common of which is the Hyper Text Markup Language, known as HTML. This has been considered the standard text-formatting language since the late 1980s for interconnecting websites on the internet universe. This markup language allows for the integration not only of data and basic designs, but also all forms of multimedia on the computer network, the internet universe, known to all of us as the world wide web. HTML as a markup language, enables one to divide between which content can be seen on web pages, visible to web users, and which are part of markup or tags, in turn hidden from view on the web pages themselves. When you create a website you will learn that these tags or hyperlinks containing URLs (for Uniform Resource Locators) function wonderfully to interconnect one website to another, and to millions of other websites, in this complex technical universe of the world wide web.
The uniform resource locator or URL, refers to the particular address of the website on the world wide web. This website address is needed to be entered on your web browser so you can access the web pages within that particular website. What is this web browser, anyway? A web browser is a software program usually downloadable for free that retrieves, processes and reads information from the websites and the corresponding web pages that you intend to view, visit and browse. The more popular web browsers at present are Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Firefox from Mozilla, Safari from Apple Technologies, and the relatively new Chrome from Google. These web browsers compete and try to gain, as well as maintain, their popularity with web surfers worldwide by different offers and value-added services in store for their users. Some come in the form of licensed software, while most come in the form of freeware, or downloadable software that is easily copied or downloaded from a website or several mirror sites, and thereafter installed on your hard drive for use by millions all over the world.
To make that more comprehensible, visualize this: you are surfing the web, looking at a website of, lets say, quilt patterns. You have never done quilting all your life, but were amused to no end at the sight of really attractive, nicely done quilts. The website presents a grand gallery of quilts for beds, walls, tables. You see small pictures of quilts on the left side of the page, with headings "for beginners", "materials", "patterns", all underlined, and showing that tiny pointing hand when your cursor grazes over those underlined words, as soon as you click on "for beginners", another new page loads, this time with a list of instructions, or an instructional video on the side, and pictures or slideshows, showing you how to make that simple yet lovely quilt. The words "for beginners", "materials", "patterns", or even the photos or slideshows, are hyperlinks in (ordinarily) Hyper Text Markup Language, containing the uniform resource locators (URLs) of those web pages containing instructions on quilting for beginners, an online shop for materials and patterns, or even web pages where you can download patterns for free. These links may be within the website itself, just different web pages, or entirely different websites that are useful and related to the website where you found the links. From the side of users, everything looks simple and really nifty, but on the other side of the fence, when you are the one to make your own website consisting of web pages with all these links, things may get a little too complicated. So knowing the basics are a must for you to be such a success when you make a website, for whatever purpose you intend to create it.
Take to heart that creating a website will not be such an easy task. True, a free website builder or paid web design services can make the task less daunting, but that does not mean you will no longer think out what goes into your website. Even if you do decide to entrust your website building to professional website builders, you should never isolate yourself and your ideas from the process, because it is, after all, your project, and you are the one who understands your own purpose for creating the website you intend to gift the world wide web with. With a free website builder, for example, you can choose from a wide assortment of pre-designed website templates, whether Flash templates or designed using other software, or start from scratch. When you start from scratch, what you are given are merely blank pages or layouts that you yourself will be designing from a number of many creative elements that are featured in free web builder websites. With professional web design services, however, you discuss with a professional (individual or team) generally what you want for your website and let them design it; afterwhich you may be presented a number of possible layouts and web design to choose from. Either way it should be reflective enough of your individual style and concept to make yourself proud of your own website.
Related Articles:
Introduction
Development of the Internet
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