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As defined previously in our introduction, the Internet is the global information system that forms a network consisting of millions of computers that are connected to each other. The WWW or simply the Web is only one example of an Internet service. It can be viewed as a global, read-write information space that is based on the following ideas:
- hypertext: a format of information which allows the user, in a computer environment, to move from one part of a document to another or from one document to another through internal connections between these documents, called hyperlinks;
- resource identifiers: unique identifiers used to locate a particular resource (web page, computer file, document, etc.) on the network;
- client-server architecture (see question 6)
- mark-up languages: characters or codes embedded in text which indicate structure, semantic meaning, or advice on presentation. (See course ICT Skills 1, question 4)
The WWW contains millions of interlinked computer files which are stored on web servers and which can be accessed by users with software called web browsers (see question 13). These WWW files include web pages with text, images, sound and video, hyperlinks to other resources, and other files such as PDF or MS Word documents.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are pieces of text, graphical objects or images in web pages that function as references – or cross-references – for new web pages or documents. A click on a hyperlink “connects” automatically to other web pages, to different sections of a same page, allows opening or displaying documents stored in the actual computer or in other computers throughout the world. The resource that is referenced by a hyperlink is called the hyperlink target.
WWW. How does it work? Client-server technology
The WWW is a typical example for a client-server technology. To better understand this let us consider what happens when a user wants to access a resource on the WWW such as a web page:
A request for a web page normally begins with the user either typing the resource identifier (URL) of the page into his or her web browser, or following a hyperlink to that page or resource. Then, in a first step, behind the scenes, the server-name part of the URL will be resolved into an IP address by the global, distributed Internet database known as the Domain Name System (DNS, see question 5). In a next step a so called HTTP request for the required page is sent to the web server at that IP address. In the case of a typical web page, the HTML text, graphics and any other files that are part of the page will be requested and returned to the client (the web browser). The web browser renders the page for the user.
Terminological note
Often, the terms Internet and Web are mixed up and the latter is used to refer to the former. But keep in mind that the Web is actually something that is available over the Internet, just like e-mail and many other Internet services.
Why is this information important for translators and translation teachers?
The World Wide Web has become an important source of information especially for translators because of the multinational, multilingual and multicultural contents of the Web. There are also lots of glossaries or terminological sources available on the WWW. Therefore translators should at least have some basic idea of what the WWW is and how it works.