What else is online that doesn't come under WWW (World Wide Web)?

0

I understand the difference between Internet and WWW, that internet refers to whole network that binds all the machines (servers and clients or hosts) together and differentiates between each of them uniquely by their IP addresses whereas, WWW refers to:

The World Wide Web (WWW) is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by URLs, interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via the Internet.

But then what else is left that doesn't come under WWW. Everything is accessed via URLs, be it webpages (HTTP), emails (SMTP), files (FTP), etc. and all this comes under web.

So what is it that WWW doesn't consist of?

Also, why do URLs such as https://www.google.com consist of both http (protocol) and www (web)?

Shivam Aggarwal

Posted 2016-05-07T09:03:02.097

Reputation: 189

Question was closed 2016-05-12T01:03:35.647

You're using SMTP via a URL? I think you're confusing hostnames / DNS and URLs. – Run CMD – 2016-05-07T09:06:57.903

@ClassStacker can you please elaborate :D . – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:08:31.097

I can't say about the things I don't know cos Everything I know is from www and is in www – pun – 2016-05-07T09:12:32.867

the definition you have for WWW is rubbish. Web is when the URL is http:// so excludes email and ftp or a vnc server or ssh – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:12:39.933

@barlop lol the definition is from Wikipedia :p . So if my URL is ftp:// then it's not web ? – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:14:06.190

@Shivamaggarwal that's correct it's not web – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:14:19.247

@barlop That is web means everything that follows HTTP and nothing else. If something uses http then it's on the web otherwise not ? – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:15:57.793

@Shivamaggarwal that and perhaps also it should be easily usable via a web browser or intended to be used via a web browser - displaying something in a web browser, a webpage or at least some data. (so a webpage would typically be like a brochure, or web interface, even a web interface to launch a rocket into space) – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:18:51.810

@Shivamaggarwal it's possible in theory to have an HTTP server which takes requests - http urls to it, and doesn't display anything and doesn't do anything.. Or that takes an http url and does respond to it but doesn't display anything.. You could make the http request with a web browser, but it's arguable whether one would call that being on the web. Though you could say it's on the web, even if it's not easily usable via a web browser. – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:23:29.280

@Shivamaggarwal Jokes apart, www specifies subdomain and http is a protocol. People over time has started believing www for internet which it isn't. Read more http://superuser.com/a/60013/270195

– pun – 2016-05-07T09:23:40.237

@The_IT_Guy_You_Don't_Like well, I guess www - world wide web, is just a long winded abbreviation for the web, but anyhow most people know you can say http://blah.com without the www and it's still on the web – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:24:59.297

@Shivamaggarwal I suppose If you have a computer that runs an http server, and is connected to the internet and accessible from the Internet(not NAPT router or firewall completely blocking access to it), so you can do http://ip then it's on the web. Even if it does nothing. You could access it with a web browser, and get nothing in response to requests, but you have technically accessed the http/web server with a web browser. – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:26:57.377

@barlop thanks alot for the crisp explanations but now, I seem to be more confused with the difference between HTTP and WWW. It would be really great to have someone like you help me here as well :) . – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:31:48.963

@Shivamaggarwal www is an abbrevation world wide web, which is the web, which is all HTTP servers accessible on the internet, they are accessible with a web browser. Whether www is in the URL or not is irrelevant. – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:34:45.660

@barlop Now what here are HTTP servers. Are they the machines that provide me with valid html and css documents ? – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:36:54.977

@Shivamaggarwal technically you can have an HTTP server that does nothing but listens for requests. and then doesn't even reply to them or do anything. So you could say that's not really part of 'the web', but if it responds with a number like 123, then you can go to your web browser and type http://234.44.22.111 (that being the IP of that http server) and it responds with 123, then that's an http(web) server you accessed via a web browser.. Normally they'd be replying with HTML and CSS, but they are programmed to do whatever, and technically don't have to, to be an http server – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:39:29.350

@Shivamaggarwal One might argue that it has to reply with HTML to be considered a web server, because it has to give a webpage. So you could say an HTTP server that is accessible over the internet and gives a webpage. – barlop – 2016-05-07T09:41:23.520

So how are multimedia like images and videos transferred ? Is it mandatory for a http server to use html as its base ? – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:43:17.403

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

– barlop – 2016-05-07T09:43:32.833

Answers

3

With the evolution of the internet, the terms have become a little muddied.

When we think of "the web", we generally mean anything that can be accessed and consumed by a web browser. That isn't to say that is the only means for accessing it - look at Twitter and Facebook. A web browser might not even be the best way to access these services. But as the comments point out, you can access FTP via a browser and some browsers let you IRC and other traditionally non-web protocols.

And consider services a like WhatsApp - which originated as non browser services, but browser access was added later. The service is the same, but the means to access it alters over time.

So we might drop to protocol, and say "http" bases services are part of the web. But many aren't. http is such a ubiquitous protocol that I wouldn't be surprised if there are more non-web users of http than users of it.

Even SMTP might get encapsulated inside an HTTP service for a portion of its journey - it certainly doesn't become "web" at that point.

To clarify one point in the question - the use of www in a DNS name is meaning less. It conveys nothing about the service on the IP address it resolves to and is not a standard of any kind. It is just tradition to use it for websites, but there is nothing to stop it being used as a ftp, message, smtp or any other service.

So my answer is there is no hard and fast rule to describe what is the web part of the internet and what is everything else. Internet based services might be accessible via traditional web protocols using traditional tools, and they might not, and they might change over time. It is just the internet now and internet services are exposed via various and multiple protocols and access methods.

Paul

Posted 2016-05-07T09:03:02.097

Reputation: 52 173

So basically what is HTTP protocol ? A set of rules that allows to me communicate with a server so that on my request it can send me back a valid html document. If this is the case then how do images, videos and other multimedia gets transmitted. How is html related to HTTP ? – Shivam Aggarwal – 2016-05-07T09:41:15.813

http is a transfer protocol, so it's role is in having the endpoints agree a method of getting data from one place to another. It has a series of commands: GET, PUT, POST etc, and various request and response parameters. Beyond that, it doesn't much care what is transmitted - it can be binary. – Paul – 2016-05-07T13:18:57.933

HTML on the other hand is a document language. A way of adding semantics to words: "this is a header" "this is a paragraph" "this is a link" etc. HTML does not care how it gets from one place to another. – Paul – 2016-05-07T13:20:08.487

So the two are unrelated, except that they happen to be what websites use for transfer (http) and documents (html) most of the time. – Paul – 2016-05-07T13:22:04.197

you write "encapsulated inside an HTTP service" <-- encapsulation is a technical term related to protocols e.g. http encapsulated in another protocol.. better avoided if you don't mean to use it in its technical sense, which i'm pretty sure you don't here – barlop – 2016-05-07T19:53:04.203

Are you saying any "non http services" are part of the web? If so, What "non http services"(if any) are you saying are "part of the web"? And can you clarify what you mean by "non http service"? – barlop – 2016-05-07T20:03:18.310

You refer to whatsapp as a service, it seems whether it's an app on the phone or whether you're referring to it as a web application. Is this use of the word "service" that you use, an official definition of service that you are using? – barlop – 2016-05-07T20:07:00.410

@barlop I did mean encapsulated in the technical sense. Consider an http based tunnel. non-http services? I can't see where I wrote that :) I chose "service" to encompass internet delivered.... services. It is a common term in my circles, perhaps there is a better one? – Paul – 2016-05-08T01:43:48.823

@barlop - Oh I see, where I say "many aren't"? I meant many uses of http are unrelated to the web. – Paul – 2016-05-08T01:45:18.580

http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/39450/discussion-between-barlop-and-paul – barlop – 2016-05-08T15:08:13.930

Asked: 2016-05-07T09:03:02.097

Viewed: 86 times

Active: 2016-05-07T12:16:27.197