RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
6.7 The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (www or web for short) is one of the most popular
features of the Internet. It is made up of millions of ‘pages’ of information. A
web page is one document or file of information, which can contain text,
pictures, and sound. It is possible to move from one page to another by clicking
on certain words, phrases or graphics that are usually highlighted and
underlined. These are known as ‘hyper-text links’. They lead the viewer to
related pages on the web.
The World Wide Web provides access to a vast amount of information on all
kinds of topics. More and more organisations display information about their
products and services on their website. Other useful facilities for resource centres
include searching databases and accessing electronic journals and newsletters.
Example of a web newsletter
A website is a number of pages displayed by the same host computer. Each
website has its own address or URL (uniform resource locator). An example of a
typical web address is: http://www.healthlink.org.uk
http://
www.healthlink.org.uk:
= the transfer protocol which tells the web
browser that it is connecting to the Web
= the domain name of the computer where the
information is stored
SECTION 6: COMPUTERS, ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND DATABASES
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