Lecture 3

Introduction to Computing –
CS101
Lecture 3
Today’s Goal is to …
 Become familiar with the World Wide Web
 Become familiar with the Web’s structure and how
the Web works
 About its impact on computing, society, commerce
World Wide Web
 World Wide Web is logically unified but
physically distributed.
 Logically unified: Anyone from anywhere can
access the information using a very simple scheme
consisting of links and URLs
 Physically distributed: The information is stored
on internet connected computers that are spread all
over the globe
Who is allowed to access the Web?

 Any one and every one with a computer and

connection to internet can access the web
 There are no nationalistic, ideological, racial or
religious restrictions
How do I visit a web page?

 Turn Your computer on.

 Connect to internet.
 Launch the browser.
 Type in URL of Web page that you want to visit.
Browser
 A browser is an application program that provides a way to
look at and interact with all the information on the World
Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated
prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let
you browse (navigate through and read) text files online. By
the time the first Web browser with a graphical user
interface was generally available (Mosaic, in
1993).Technically, a Web browser is a client program that
uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make
requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of
the browser user.
URL
 URL (Uniform Resource Locator, previously
Universal Resource Locator) – pronounced YU-
AHR-EHL is the address of a file (resource)
accessible on the Internet.
Examples:
 http://dawn.com
 http://www.vu.edu.pk
 http://www.smeda.org.pk
What is a Web site?
 A Web site is a related collection of World Wide Web
(WWW) files that includes a beginning file called a
home page. A company or an individual tells you how
to get to their Web site by giving you the address of
their home page. From the home page, you can get to
all the other pages on their site. For example, the Web
site for IBM has the home page address of
http://www.ibm.com. IBM's home page address leads
to thousands of pages but a web site can also be just of
few pages.
What is Home Page of a web site?
 For a Web user, the home page is the first Web
page that is displayed after starting a Web browser
like Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet
Explorer.
Are there any Access charges?
 Most of information on web is available for free.
 There is some for payment content on web, which
is generally paid with the help of credit card.
How do I navigate the web?

 You go from one web page to another by clicking

on a link.
What is a link?
 Each link is a gateway to another webpage.
 Underlined pieces of text in blue are called links.
All you have to do is click on the link to go to the
page corresponding to that link.
How many web pages are there?
 In 1999 there were 800 million web pages .
 In year 2002 , the number is supposed to be 8
billion.
 If you spend a minute reviewing each of these
pages , it will take more then 15,000 years to go
through them all
What is secret behind the explosive
growth of web?
 Any page is allowed to link to any other.
 There are no controls over who puts what on the
web.
 Everyone can put whatever they want to put on the
web and they do.
What is Search Engine?

 Search engine continuously scan the web and

compile a list of all web pages that they find.
 We use search engine by typing the search
keyword or query on its webpage. It looks for
those keywords in its index and displays a list of
webpages that contain that keyword.
Internet
 Web and internet are not same. Web is a service
that run on internet. Internet is like network of
roads in a city, whereas web is a service like Bus
service that runs over the roads
Impact of Web on Computing
 Every one wants to use web that has increased the
use of computers. Web carry's a lot of information.
Impact of web on society
 User friendly communication has become more
affordable… The global village is shrinking.
Business persons can stay in touch with their
business even not being there
 For some… that has resulted in destruction of their
family life.
Impact of Web on Commerce
 Huge impact:
 The moment I take my business to web, it
becomes possible for my customers to find out
about me as being physically present in their city.
Thanks