What is WWW?
The world wide web is a public system of linked web pages and other resources delivered over Internet protocols. Despite the nickname www, it isn’t a single site but a web of documents and media across many websites and networks; resources may include pages, images, APIs, and data.
How Does WWW Work?
When you enter a www address, web browsers send HTTP(S) requests to web servers. The server replies with the resources requested—HTML, CSS, scripts, media—so the device renders contents as web pages. On the world wide web, web standards define URLs, HTTP, and HTML. Server software generates dynamic content, so the world wide web adapts to input when accessing www resources.
World Wide Web (WWW) Vs Internet: difference between them
Think of two layers: Internet transport and the world wide web layer.
- The Internet is a global network of networks; it moves packets.
- The world wide web is an application layer of documents and apps.
- Beyond the web, the Internet carries email, FTP, VoIP, and APIs; some say internets, but www is one service.
Challenges of the WWW
At web scale, the world wide web faces challenges, and www exposes vast amounts of information.
- Scalability and performance across networks.
- Security and privacy in the dynamic web.
- Accessibility and content quality.
- Interoperability; the web consortium promotes standards, but adoption varies world wide across server software and sites.
Examples
Everyday moments on the world wide web:
- You type a www address to open web pages on networking sites; resources such as images load from multiple sites.
- A documentation portal fetches APIs from www endpoints while web browsers render dynamic content from web servers.
Streaming pages pull media from several servers, showing how the wide web stitches resources requested.