Vefurinn

Vefurinn, or the World Wide Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. It enables users to view and navigate text, images, video, and other media through web browsers. Information on the Web is identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and transmitted using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Web pages are created with markup languages such as HTML, styled with CSS, and made interactive with JavaScript.

The Web was conceived in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Tim Berners-Lee and colleagues at CERN. The first website went online in 1991, and the Web expanded rapidly through open standards and the development of browsers and servers. From static pages, it evolved into dynamic, interactive applications, and today includes mobile access, streaming, and complex web applications.

The Web operates on a client-server model. A user's device requests resources from a web server, which responds with content that a browser renders as a page. Hyperlinks connect documents across sites, enabling easy navigation and the growth of a vast information network. Search engines index content to help users discover material.

The Web has transformed communication, commerce, education, and media. It raises concerns about privacy, security, misinformation, and digital accessibility. Standards bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develop specifications to ensure interoperability and progress.