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THE WORLD WIDE WEB - THE BASICS

What's hypertext, what's a browser and why does a web address look so funny?

Ever asked yourself those questions? Then you've come to the right place. 'The basics' will tell you everything you need to know about how to navigate this thing called the World Wide Web.

What is a link?

There are many ways of exchanging information over the internet, but the World Wide Web (or web for short), is the most popular and the easiest to use. This is because all you have to do to move from one part of the Web to another is point your mouse at certain words coloured blue or pictures and click. These special words or pictures are called 'links', or 'hyperlinks'. When they are underlined text links, they are also known as hypertext.

Hyperlinks on a webpage can link directly to any other webpage on any other computer with a website connected to the internet, anywhere in the world. Thanks to this feature, the Web is now a huge and growing mass of information, already perhaps the single most important source of knowledge in the world.

To find out more about links, move your mouse pointer over the highlighted text below and it will turn from an arrow into a hand. 

Click your mouse once and you'll go to the next page.