The Web is a means of offering and accessing information resources on the Internet, based on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). It is an example of client/server computing, with a still rather "thin" client and a rather "fat" server. From the viewpoint of publishing, the adequacy of html has been questioned from the start.

It is gradually turning more into a client/middleware/server structure, with the important work of 'middleware' standards being pursued with object-oriented technologies like Java.

Embedded links in the documents, usually called "Web pages," can lead to other documents, sounds, images, databases (like ORBIS), e-mail addresses, etc. As of Sept. 1999 the Web has about 2.2 million publicly acessible sites, representing about 300 million pages. (See "Scope of the Web")

Unified approach to other protocols (telnet, ftp, gopher). Web clients are also a functional email environment.

Nonlinear: outside a specific set of linked documents, there is no top or bottom, no prescribed hierarchical path through information resources, therefore poor predictability about where a link leads.

You can never do an exhaustive search on the Web. It is always open-ended.