CHAPTER 1

INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES
AND PROTOCOLS
 1. Overview of Internet
 Internet is a large number of computers connected together to share
information.
 Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks
that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate
between networks and devices.
 It is a collection of networks (a network of networks) sharing digital
information via a common set of networking and software
protocols.
 It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private,
public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to
global scope, that are linked together.
 Anyone can connect their computer to the Internet and immediately
communicate with other computers and users.
 The Internet has become an industry in its own respect.
 1. Overview of Internet…
 The Internet began in the late 1960s as an experiment to design
robust computer networks.
 The goal was to construct a network of computers that could
withstand the loss of several machines without compromising the
ability of the remaining ones to communicate.
 Funding came from the U.S. Department of Defense, which had a
vested interest in building information networks that could withstand
nuclear attack.
 The result was a network called ARPANET developed by Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense.
 Later ARPANET was replaced by National Science Foundation
Network (NSFNET) accessible to research and education
organization in 1990s.
 NSFNET was finally commercialized in 1995.
 1. Overview of Internet…
 The Internet consists of many computers, called servers or hosts,
which are linked by communication lines.
 These servers are located in different part of the world.
 The administrators of these servers may make information or
software stored on them publically available
 So others can view, download or use the data.
 Another important thing that has contributed for growth of Internet
is ownership.
 Until now, nobody owns the Internet.
 Its unique design transformed it into a source for innovation that
anyone in the world could use.
 However, its backbone: servers and Internet Service Providers (ISP)
are owned by private as well government organizations.
1. Overview of Internet…

Fig undersea fiber optic cables used for internet

 1. Overview of Internet…
 The growth of Internet is very dramatic.
1. Overview of Internet…
 In a short space of time, the Internet has become fundamental to the
global economy.
 There are about 1.13 billion websites on the internet in 2023.
 A staggering 82% are inactive, meaning only 200,121,724 of the 1.13
billion websites are actively maintained and visited.
 As of 2023, there were 5.18 billion Internet users worldwide.
 This amounted to 64.6% of the global population.
 Of this total, 4.8 billion (59.9%) of the world's population are social
media users.
 Generally, the services of internet are:
– World Wide Web (WWW)
– Electronic mail (email)
– File Transfer (ftp)
– Discussion Groups
– Usenet (News Group)
– Internet Chat
– Search Services
 2. World Wide Web
 The World Wide Web (usually referred to
simply as the Web) is a collection of
HTML documents, images, videos, and
sound files that are linked to each other
and accessed over the Internet using
HTTP protocol.
 The Web is not the Internet.
 The Internet is a global data
communications network.
 The Web is just one of the many
technologies that use the Internet to
distribute data.
 2. World Wide Web…
 World Wide Web is a collection of interconnected documents
and other resources linked by hyperlinks.
 Hyperlink is also called hypertext or simply link
 Hyperlinks are reference or navigation element in a document
to another document.
 WWW is a massive storehouse of information that resides on
internet.
 WWW was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at the
European Nuclear Research Center (CERN) in Switzerland.
 2. World Wide Web...
 Berners-Lee created WWW by bringing together three
technologies that were already in development at the time:
 Markup Language – a system of instructions and formatting codes
embedded in text.
 Hypertext – a means of embedding links to other documents,
images, and other elements in a document.
 Internet – a global network of computers where clients request
service and servers provide services
 WWW pages are connected to one another using hypertext
that allows you to move from any page to any other page
 The page could be graphics, multimedia files, as well as any
Internet resources.
2. World Wide Web...

Fig WWW pages and how they are interlinked

 2. World Wide Web…
 In 1993 there were a total of 130 web sites.
 By 1996, there were 100,000 web sites.
 As of 2023, there are about 1.13 billion websites on the
internet in 2023.
 A staggering 82% are inactive, meaning only 200,121,724 of
the 1.13 billion websites are actively maintained and visited.
 New sites appear every day.
 As of 2023, there were 5.18 billion Internet users worldwide.
 This amounted to 64.6% of the global population.
 Of this total, 4.8 billion (59.9%) of the world's population are
social media users.
 2. World Wide Web...
 The Web consists of many billions of internet-connected
servers with information on them to share.
 These documents can be formed of anything from plain text to
multimedia or even 3D objects.
 The computers on which the information is stored are called
servers
 Servers deliver this information over the Internet to client
computers using a protocol.
 The protocol just provides a mechanism that allows a client to
request a document, and a server to send that document.
 The goal of a web server is to serve information to anyone
who requests it.
 2. World Wide Web...
 WWW is a client-server architecture where client machines request
service from server machines.
 In client-server architecture, some application programs act as
information providers (servers), while other application programs
act as information receivers (clients).
 The backbone of the web is the network of web servers across the
world.
 These are computers that have a particular type of software running
on them: web server
 The web server software knows how to speak the protocol and
knows which information stored on the computer should be made
accessible through the web.
 2. World Wide Web...
 The web browser is also particularly clever in the way it
displays what it retrieves.
 Web pages are written in a markup language called HTML
 The browser knows how to display these correctly, whether
you have a huge flat screen or a tiny screen on a handheld
device or phone.
 The language the page has been built with gives the browser
hints on how to display things, and the browser decides the
final layout itself.
 3. Client-server Architecture
 The basic idea behind the World-Wide Web is based on a client
server application.
 WWW is created on the basic model of client-server concept and
hypertext data.
 The client-server model is a distributed application structure that
partitions tasks or workloads between the providers of a resource or
service, called servers, and service requesters, called clients.
 Usually, clients and servers communicate over a computer network
on separate hardware.
 But both client and server may reside in the same system.
 A server runs one or more server programs, which share their
resources with clients.
 The client requests content or service from a server.
 3. Client-server Architecture
 Clients initiate communication sessions with servers, which await
for incoming requests.
 Examples of computer applications that use the client–server model
are:
 email server,

 network printing,

 file server,

 the WWW, etc

 Servers are classified by the services they provide.

 For example, a web server serves web pages and a file server serves
computer files.
 3. Client-server Architecture
 In client-server architecture, the server hosts, delivers and manages
most of the resources and services consumed by the client.
 This type of architecture has one or more client computers
connected to a central server over a network or internet connection.
 Clients and servers exchange messages in a request–response
messaging pattern.
 The client sends a request, and the server returns a response.
 This exchange of messages is an example of inter-process
communication.
 To communicate, the computers must have a common language, and
they must follow rules so that both the client and the server know
what to expect.
 The language and rules of communication are defined in a
communications protocol.
3. Client-server Architecture…

Figure How WWW works: retrieving a web page from server by clients
 3. Client-server Architecture…
 The HTTP client sends a request to the server requesting a file/page.

 The request is in the form of:

 request method, URI, and protocol version,

 followed by a MIME-like message containing request modifiers,

client information, and possible body content over a TCP/IP

connection.
 The primary application of the server is to handle all the requests
sent from the user.
 The HTTP server responds to the client with the requested file.
 The response contains a status line, including the message's
protocol version and a success or error code, followed by a MIME-
like message containing server information, entity metainformation,
and possible entity-body content.
3. Client-server Architecture…
 4. How the Web works?
 Let us start with the most obvious way of using the web: you visit a
website like http://www.google.com.
 The moment you enter this address in your browser and you hit
ENTER, a lot of different things happen:
1. User enters a website URL
2. The URL gets resolved to IP address
3. A request is sent to the server of the website
4. The response of the server is parsed
5. The page is rendered and displayed
4. How the Web works?...
 4. How the Web works?...
 Step 2 - URL Gets Resolved
 When we enter web addresses like www.google.com the request
goes to one of many special computers on the Internet known as
DNS.
 All these requests are routed through various routers and switches.
 The domain name servers keep tables of machine names and their
IP addresses.
 So, when you type in www.google.com it gets translated into a IP
address which identifies the computers that serve the Google
Website to you.
 Actually, every single step could be split up in multiple other steps.
 4. How the Web works?...
 IP Address: IP is a numerical identifier for a device (computer,
server, printer, router, etc.) on a TCP/IP network.
 Every computer on the internet has an IP address that it uses to
identify and communicate with other computers.
 IP addresses have four sets of numbers separated by decimal points
like 244.155.65.20.
 Domain name: domain name is used to identify IP addresses.
 Users use the domain name (e.g. www.google.com) to get to a
website on the internet.
 When you type the domain name into your browser, the DNS uses it
to look up the corresponding IP address for the given website.
4. How the Web works?...
 4. How the Web works?...
 Step 3 - Request Is Sent
 With the IP address resolved, the browser goes ahead and makes a
request to the server with that IP address.
 The browser bundles up a bunch of information and sends that data
package to the IP address.
 The request is sent via the HTTP.
 HTTP is a standardized protocol which defines what a request and
response has to look like, which data may be included and how the
request will be submitted.
 The server then handles the request appropriately and returns
response.
 When requesting a page like www.google.com, the response will
contain the code that is required to render the page on the screen.
at case, the response would contain a specific piece of metadata, that tells the browser that the response data is of type text

4. How the Web works?...

 Step 4 - Response Is Parsed
 The browser receives the response sent by the server.
 After receiving the response, the browser parses the response.
 Again, the standardization enforced by HTTP helps in the parsing
process.
 The browser checks the data and metadata that's enclosed in the
response.
 And based on that, it decides what to do.
 The response would contain a piece of metadata that tells the
browser that the response data is of type text/html, or any other
format such as image, pdf, video, etc.
 This allows the browser to then parse the actual data that's attached
to the response as HTML code or any other.
4. How the Web works?...
 4. How the Web works?...
 Step 5 - Page Is Displayed
 The browser goes through the HTML data returned by the server
and builds a website based on that.
 The browser displays the content to the user.
 Once the browser has finished loading all other assets that were
listed in the HTML page, the page will finally be loaded in the
browser window.
 Then the connection will be closed.
 4. How the Web works?...
 When you connect to the web, you do so via an Internet Service
Provider (ISP).
 In Ethiopian case, this is Ethio telecom.
 Every device connected to the web has a unique IP address; it is like
the phone number for that computer.
 The unique number that the DNS server returns to your computer
allows your browser to contact the web server that hosts the website
you requested.
 A web server is a computer that is constantly connected to the web
and is set up specially.
 The web server then sends the page you requested back to your web
browser.
5. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

 Web clients interact with web servers with a simple

application-level protocol called HTTP.
 HTTP runs on top of TCP/IP network connections.
 HTTP is the standard protocol for transferring web content.
 It is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide
Web.
 HTTP has been in use by the World Wide Web global
information initiative since 1990.
 The first version of HTTP, referred to as HTTP/0.9, was a
simple protocol for raw data transfer across the Internet.
 5. HTTP…
 HTTP/1.0 improved the protocol by allowing messages to be
in the format of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
(MIME) like messages, containing meta-information about
the data transferred and modifiers on the request/response
semantics.
 However, HTTP/1.0 does not take in to consideration the need
for persistent connections, or virtual hosts.
 This has necessitated a protocol version change.
 This specification defines the protocol referred to as
HTTP/1.1.
 This protocol includes more strict requirements than
HTTP/1.0 in order to ensure reliable implementation of its
features.
 5. HTTP…
 There are following three basic features which makes HTTP a
simple but powerful protocol:
 HTTP is connectionless: the HTTP client (i.e. browser)
initiates an HTTP request.
 After a request is made, the client disconnects from the server
and waits for a response.
 The server process the request and re-establish the connection
with the client to send response back.
 HTTP is media independent: this means, any type of data
can be sent by HTTP as long as both the client and server
know how to handle the data content.
 This is required for client as well as server to specify the
content type using appropriate MIME-type.
 5. HTTP…
 HTTP is stateless: HTTP is connectionless and this is a direct
result that HTTP is a stateless protocol.
 The server and client are aware of each other only during a
current request.
 Afterwards, both of them forget about each other.
 Due to this nature of the protocol, neither the client nor the
browser can retain information between different request
across the web pages.
 HTTP/1.0 uses a new connection for each request/response
exchange.
 However, HTTP/1.1 connection may be used for one or more
request/response exchanges.
 The HTTP protocol is a request/response protocol.
 A client sends a request to the server in the form of a request
method, URI, and protocol version, followed by possible body
content over a connection with a server.
 HTTP request methods indicate the desired action to be performed
on the identified resource.
 The most commonly used methods are:
 GET - the GET method means retrieve whatever information is
identified by the Request-URI.
 When a client issues a GET request, it is asking the server for files.
 HEAD - The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the
server must not return a message-body in the response.
 When a client issues a HEAD request it typically is looking to
receive the response status code (e.g 200, etc..) only and not the
actual body content.
 5. HTTP…
 POST - the POST method is used to request that the origin server
accept the entity enclosed in the request as a new subordinate of the
resource identified by the Request-URI in the Request-Line.
 When a client issues a POST request, it is sending data to the server
(e.g.. uploading a file, submitting user information, credit card data,
etc).
 The server responds with a status line, including the message’s
protocol version and a success or error code, followed by a MIME
like message containing server information, entity meta-information,
and possible entity body content.
 Most HTTP communication is initiated by a user agent and consists
of a request to be applied to a resource on web server
 5. HTTP…
 Generally, the HTTP request line includes
Request method, request URL, and HTTP version
 The response line include:
 HTTP version, status code(a three digit number) and status

description which has textual explanation for the status

code. It also contains body.
 5. HTTP…

HTTP request line HTTP response line

HTTP Version (eg. HTTP/1.1,
HTTP Version (eg. HTTP/1.1, HTTP/1.0)
HTTP/1.0)

Request method (e.g. GET, POST,

Status code (e.g. 100, 200)
DELETE, TRACE, PATCH)

Status Description (e.g. Ok and Success

Request URL (description for status code 100 and 200
respectively)

Table Summary of the structure of HTTP

 5. HTTP…
HTTP Status Codes
 In HTTP/1.0 and later versions, the first line of the HTTP response is

called the status line.

 It includes a numeric status code (such as 202) and a textual reason

phrase (such as “OK").

 The way the user agent handles the response primarily depends on the

code and secondarily on the response headers.

 The first digit of the status code specifies one of five classes of

response:
– Informational, success, redirection, client error, server error.
 It is the bare minimum that an HTTP client should recognizes these

five classes.
 The phrases used are the standard examples, but any human-readable

alternative can be provided.

 5. HTTP…
Informational 1xx
 This class of status code indicates a provisional response,

consisting only of the Status-Line and optional headers, and is

terminated by an empty line.
 There are no required headers for this class of status code.

 Since HTTP/1.0 did not define any 1xx status codes, servers

must not send a 1xx response to an HTTP/1.0 client except

under experimental conditions.
 A client MUST be prepared to accept one or more 1xx status

responses prior to a regular response, even if the client does not

expect a 100 (Continue) status message.
 Unexpected 1xx status responses may be ignored by a user

agent.
 5. HTTP…
Successful 2xx
 This class of status code indicates that the client's request was

successfully received, understood, and accepted.

Redirection 3xx
 This class of status code indicates that further action needs to
be taken by the user agent in order to fulfill the request.
 The action required may be carried out by the user agent
without interaction with the user if and only if the method
used in the second request is GET or HEAD.
 A client should detect infinite redirection loops, since such
loops generate network traffic for each redirection.
 5. HTTP…
Client Error 4xx
 The 4xx class of status code is intended for cases in which the

client seems to have erred.

 Except when responding to a HEAD request, the server

should include an entity containing an explanation of the error

situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent
condition.
 These status codes are applicable to any request method.

 User agents should display any included entity to the user.

 5. HTTP…
Server Error 5xx
 Response status codes beginning with the digit "5" indicate
cases in which the server is aware that it has erred or is
incapable of performing the request.
 Except when responding to a HEAD request, the server
should include an entity containing an explanation of the
error situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent
condition.
 User agents should display any included entity to the user.
 These response codes are applicable to any request method.
 5. HTTP…

Example Status codes:

100 Continue The client should continue with its request.

The request has succeeded. The information returned with the
200 OK
response is dependent on the method used in the request.
The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URI
Moved
301 and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one of the
Permanently
returned URIs.
404 Not Found The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI.

Internal The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented

500
Server Error it from fulfilling the request.
1xx: Information

Message: Description:

Only a part of the request has been received by the

100 Continue server, but as long as it has not been rejected, the
client should continue with the request
101 Switching Protocols The server switches protocol

2xx: Successful

Message: Description:
200 OK The request is OK
The request is complete, and a new resource is
201 Created
created
The request is accepted for processing, but the
202 Accepted
processing is not complete
203 Non-authoritative
Information
204 No Content
205 Reset Content
 5. HTTP…
3xx: Redirection

Message Description
A link list. The user can select a link and go to that location.
300 Multiple Choices
Maximum five addresses
301 Moved Permanently The requested page has moved to a new url
302 Found The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url
303 See Other The requested page can be found under a different url
304 Not Modified
305 Use Proxy
This code was used in a previous version. It is no longer
306 Unused
used, but the code is reserved
307 Temporary Redirect The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url
 4xx: Client Error
Message Description
400 Bad Request The server did not understand the request
401 Unauthorized The requested page needs a username and a password
402 Payment Required You can not use this code yet
403 Forbidden Access is forbidden to the requested page
404 Not Found The server can not find the requested page
405 Method Not Allowed The method specified in the request is not allowed
406 Not Acceptable The server can only generate a response that is not accepted by the client
You must authenticate with a proxy server before this request can be
407 Proxy Authentication Required
served
408 Request Timeout The request took longer than the server was prepared to wait
409 Conflict The request could not be completed because of a conflict
410 Gone The requested page is no longer available
The "Content-Length" is not defined. The server will not accept the
411 Length Required
request without it
412 Precondition Failed The precondition given in the request evaluated to false by the server
The server will not accept the request, because the request entity is too
413 Request Entity Too Large
large
The server will not accept the request, because the url is too long. Occurs
414 Request-url Too Long when you convert a "post" request to a "get" request with a long query
information
The server will not accept the request, because the media type is not
415 Unsupported Media Type
supported
416
417 Expectation Failed
 5. HTTP…
5xx: Server Error

Message Description
The request was not completed. The server met an
500 Internal Server Error
unexpected condition
The request was not completed. The server did not
501 Not Implemented
support the functionality required
The request was not completed. The server received
502 Bad Gateway
an invalid response from the upstream server
The request was not completed. The server is
503 Service Unavailable
temporarily overloading or down
504 Gateway Timeout The gateway has timed out
505 HTTP Version Not The server does not support the "http protocol"
Supported version
 5. HTTPS…
 Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
 HTTPS is a protocol that secures communication and data transfer
between a user’s web browser and a website.
 It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer
network, and is widely used on the Internet.
 In HTTPS, the communication protocol is encrypted using Transport
Layer Security (TLS) or, formerly, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
 The protocol is therefore also referred to as HTTP over TLS, or
HTTP over SSL.
 It protects against man-in-the-middle attacks, and the bidirectional
block cipher encryption of communications between a client and
server protects the communications against eavesdropping and
tampering.
 5. HTTPS…
 HTTPS encrypts all message contents, including the HTTP headers
and the request/response data.
 HTTPS is now used more often by web users than the original, non-
secure HTTP.
 This is primarily to protect page authenticity on all types of
websites, secure accounts, and keep user communications, identity,
and web browsing private.
 The HTTPS protocol makes it possible for website users to transmit
sensitive data such as credit card numbers, banking information,
and login credentials securely over the internet.
 For this reason, HTTPS is especially important for securing online
activities such as shopping, banking, and remote work.
 5. HTTPS…
 An HTTPS URL begins with https:// instead of http://.
 Modern web browsers also indicate that a user is visiting a secure
HTTPS website by displaying a closed padlock symbol to the left of
the URL.
6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)

 SMTP is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

 It is an Internet standard for transmission of electronic mail (email)
across the Internet.
 Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of the most popular network services
nowadays.
 Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use simple
mail transfer protocol (SMTP) to send messages from one server to
another.
 The messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using
either POP or Internet message access protocol (IMAP).
 SMTP is used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server.
6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)

 SMTP: delivery/storage to receiver’s server

 Mail access protocol: retrieval from server
 POP: Post Office Protocol. Client connects to POP3 server

on TCP port 110

 IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol. Client connects to

TCP on port 143


 What about web-based email?
 Connect to mail servers via web browser
 Example: gmail, outlook, etc.
 Browsers speak HTTP.
 Email servers speak SMTP.
 Need a bridge to retrieve email using HTTP.
6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)

 SMTP response codes

6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)

 FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.

 It is a protocol used to transfer files between an FTP host/server and
an FTP client computer on the Internet.
 FTP is most commonly used to download files from the Internet.
 FTP is based on a client/server model, with an FTP client on a user
machine creating a connection to an FTP server to send and retrieve
files to and from the server.
 FTP establishes two connections between the client system and
server system, one for control information and the other for data to
be transferred.
 Control information carry commands/response.
 FTP connects using two TCP ports for all communications between the
server and client.
 COMMAND Port: This is the main TCP port created upon a session is
connected. It is used for passing commands and replies.
 Port 21 (unsecured) or 990 (secured) are the default command ports used.
 DATA Port: Each time when files or directories are transferred between
server and client, a random TCP data connection is established and data
transfer commences over the connection.
 Once data transfer is complete, the connection is closed.
 Subsequent data connections are established and terminated as required.
 Data connections are never left open.
6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)
…
 An authentication system is used to ensure that only
authorized clients are allowed to access a server.
 At the same time, a feature sometimes called anonymous FTP
allows an organization that wishes it to set up a general
information server to provide files to anyone who might want
to retrieve them.
 Most recent web browsers provide support for FTP.
 FTP servers can be access through the web browser in the
format:
ftp(s)://<ftpserveraddress>
6. Other Web protocols (FTP, SMTP, ...)
…
 7. Web Content Validation

 Validating a website is the process of ensuring that the web pages

conform to the standards defined by various organizations.
 Website validation is the process of checking its HTML and CSS
code for compliance with the W3C standards.
 W3C is the main international standards organization for the World
Wide Web.
 The World Wide Web Consortium sets the standards and also
hosts a variety of web page validators.
 Conforming to standards and regulations is one of the many ways
you can make your website universally understood.
 Validation is important and will ensure that your web pages are
interpreted in the same way by various machines.
 7. Web Content Validation…

 Failure to validate your website pages may adversely affect your

site usability, performance and search engine rankings.
 Critical errors in your website code, even if they are not showing
visually, can make a big impact on your site searchability.
 That is why it is important to validate your website.
 Validators detect problems in your web page and style sheet.
 It could be a tag that was opened and never closed.
 It could be a misspelled piece of code or a forgotten element the
tag or style requires to work properly.
 Simply put, validation ensures that your website complies with the
standards accepted by most web designers.
 That also means that it will be accessible to more people, across
more web browsers and operating systems.
 Having an accessible website is also regarded as good web design
practice.
 Why is website validation important?
 1. Compatibility
 If you are running an unvalidated website you cannot be certain that
your website's design is rendering correctly (or uniformly) in
different browsers.
 For example, Internet Explorer is more forgiving than many other
browsers and may ignore unclosed tags etc. that could otherwise
cause a page to display incorrectly.
 Web site validation techniques help ensure your code is correct and
will work on as many browsers as possible.
 2. SEO (search engine optimization)
 By validating you are making your code behind the website as clean
and uncluttered as possible.
 Cleaner code is easier for search engines to 'read through' and will
increase the chances of being read the whole way.
 This will allow them to extract more information about your
website, understand your services better and perhaps see your
website as being more authoritive than others.
 The more authorative websites command higher search engine
positions.
 3. Accessibility
 Validating your website means you are being made to use many
techniques that aid the accessibility (catering for users with a
disability) of your site.
 As a very basic example, a validated website will not allow an
image without an ALT attribute and ALT attributes are important for
use with screen readers (which a user with a visionary impairment
may use to 'read out' a website to them).
 8. Website Evaluation (readability,
layout, coloring, trust…)
 Most information that is published on the Web is not filtered and
evaluated like books, journals, magazines, or newspapers.
 Since there are no guidelines for publishing on the Web, it is
important to evaluate Web sites before including them in a research
paper or using them for other purposes.
 Before using information found on the Web, there are five basic
criteria to consider:
 Accuracy: it is important that the information is factual and
reliable. You should question if the information was verified for
accuracy before being placed on the Web. Consult print sources for
verifications such as reference sources.
 Objectivity: consider if the website shows evidence of being bias.
It is important to determine what audience the site is intended for.
 8. Website Evaluation …

 Authority: be sure to question what is the author's qualification for

writing on the subject. Look to see if it is clear who has
responsibility for publishing the information and if there is an email
address and/or resume. Determine if the publisher or company is
reputable. Biographical sources are useful for getting background
information on authors.
 Currency: determine if the content of the sources is up-to-date, if
the publication date is shown, when the Web site was last updated,
and the frequency for editions and revisions. Depending on the
topic you are writing, time sensitive materials may be required.
 Coverage: look at the scope of the topics and materials included in
the work or website. Review the website and compare its
comprehensiveness to similar sites.
 8. Website Evaluation …

 Create pages that are not considered cluttered by users.

 8. Website Evaluation …

 Put important, clickable items in the same locations, and closer to

the top of the page, where their location can be better estimated.
 8. Website Evaluation …

 Layout-wise, consider the following things.

 Is the text/copy on your website easily readable? Make sure that the
background does not interfere with reading – there must be contrast.
 Is the text too small to read?
 Is the text broken down into small readable chunks, divided with
headers and sub-headers?
 Do the graphics aesthetically improve your website?
 Are the graphics appropriate and do they gel with the look and feel
of your website?
 Do your graphics load slowly?
 Are there too many graphics in one page?
 8. Website Evaluation …

 Website coloring refers to any color that appears on your website:

background color, text color, button color, menu color, etc.
 These together form your overall color palette which shapes the
feel, mood and aesthetic of your website.
 The color scheme of your website can impact how your visitors
perceive your brand.
 Nobody wants to spend long time on ugly websites.
 If the color palette used is poor, visitors will leave your website
soon.
 If the website is harmonious and aesthetically pleasing, visitors will
stick around.
 9. HTML
 HTML stands for hypertext markup language.
 It is a standard language for creating websites.
 It is based on using tags to indicate different web contents.
 The standard is decided upon by a large body of volunteers
and experts, who oversee its progress and guide its
development.
 This body is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C, http://www.w3.org/)
 Currently recommends the use of HTML 5, its latest standard.
 9. HTML…
History of HTML
 The original HTML draft - Tim Berners-Lee based his original markup
language for hypertext documents on the syntax and elements in SGML, but
added the anchor <a> element for adding hypertext links.
 HTML + - this version of HTML, written by Dave Raggett in 1993 and
1994, builds upon Berners-Lee’s original version, adding elements such as
figures, tables, and forms.
 Many of the ideas developed here made it into later versions, but the specific
elements (such as fig for figures) were left behind.
 HTML 2.0 - This was a proposed standard developed by Tim Berners-Lee
and the HTML Working Group at IETF.
 It was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force HTML Working
Group in 1995.
 9. HTML…
 HTML 3.2
 The HTML 3.0 draft was introduced to standardize HTML.
 This draft included several new abilities and more powerful
opportunities for webpage developers.
 But many browsers could not implement them.
 For this reason, the HTML 3.0 draft was abandoned.
 HTML 3.2 is the first recommendation released by the newly-formed
W3C in 1996.
 It is a snapshot of all the HTML elements in common use at the time
and includes many extensions to HTML that were the result of the
notorious Browser War between Netscape and Microsoft.
 Many of these extensions are presentational, and in hindsight, most
would say they should have never been incorporated in the standard.
 9. HTML…
 HTML 4.0 and 4.01
 HTML 4.0, released as a Recommendation in 1998.
 It HTML back on track by acknowledging that all matters of
presentation should be handled with CSS and remain separate from
document markup.
 Many of the presentational elements and attributes introduced in
HTML 3.2 were kept because they were in widespread use,
however, they were labeled as deprecated.
 HTML 4.0 also introduced a number of accessibility and
internationalization features.
 The updated HTML 4.01 Recommendation fixed some small issues
and was released in 1999.
 It also served as the basis for the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation.
 9. HTML…
HTML 5
 In 2008, W3C published a working draft for HTML 5.
 HTML 5 improves interoperability, and reduces development costs,
by making precise rules on how to handle all HTML elements, and
how to recover from errors.
 Some of the new features in HTML 5 are functions for embedding
audio, video, graphics, client-side data storage, and interactive
documents.
 HTML 5 also contains new elements like <nav>, <header>,
<footer>, and <figure>.