W3C

Web Characterization Terminology & Definitions Sheet

W3C Working Draft 24-May-1999

This version:
http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCA-terms/01
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCA-terms/
Editors:
Brian Lavoie <lavoie@oclc.org>,
Henrik Frystyk Nielsen <frystyk@w3.org>
Copyright © 1999 W3C (MIT, INRIA, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use and software licensing rules apply. 

Abstract

In characterizing the structure and content of the Web, it is necessary to establish precise semantics for Web concepts. The Web has proceeded for a surprisingly long time without consistent definitions for concepts which have become part of the common vernacular, such as "Web site" or "Web page". This can lead to a great deal of confusion when attempting to develop, interpret, and compare Web metrics.

This document represents an effort on the part of the W3C Web Characterization Activity to establish a shared understanding of key Web concepts. The primary goal in preparing this document was to develop a common interpretation for terminology related to Web characterization research. However, it is hoped that the Web community at large will also benefit from the enumeration and definition of important Web concepts.

Status of this document

This document is a working draft for review by W3C members and other interested parties. It reflects rough consensus of the W3C Web Characterization Activity Working Group. We do not claim the set of terms defined in this Working Draft to be exhaustive nor (despite our efforts) that all definitions are applicable in all situations. The purpose of this Working Draft is to bring clarity to the terms often used when talking about the Web as well as to encourage discussion of these and other terms. It is expected that future changes will be elaborations on the concepts contained in this document, rather than changes in the concepts themselves. Please send comments to the <www-wca@w3.org> mailing list which is archived at "http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-wca/"

Information on the W3C Web Characterization Activity is located at "http://www.w3.org/WCA/". A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at "http://www.w3.org/TR/".

Table of contents

1. Primitive Elements
2. The Scope of the Web from Perspective of Web Characterization
2.1 Web Clients
2.2 Web Servers
2.3 Resource Structure
3. References

1. Primitive Elements

Primitive elements are general concepts and terms that can be used to describe an information space like the Web. These terms are not necessarily limited to resources accessible via any particular access mechanism nor are they guaranteed to be accessible via the Internet.

In this context we use them to describe the information space known as the Web. However, in addition to illustrating the scope of the Web in general, the reason why we mention them here is that they are needed to define a more restrictive set of terms used in Web characterization research which we can measure and define a set of metrics for.

Resource

The URI specification describes a resource as the common term for "...anything that has identity. Familiar examples include an electronic document, an image, a service (e.g., "today's weather report for Los Angeles"), as well as a collection of other resources. Not all resources are network "retrievable"; e.g., human beings, corporations, and bound books in a library can also be considered resources..." (see also the term Web Resource).

Examples: Web page, collection of Web pages, service that provides information from a database, e-mail message, Java classes ...

URI

The URI specification defines a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) as a compact string of characters for identifying an abstract or physical resource.

Resource Manifestation

A resource manifestation is a rendition of a resource at a specific point in time and space. A conceptual mapping exists between a resource and a resource manifestation (or set of manifestations), in the sense that the resource has certain properties - e.g., its URI, its intended purpose, etc. - which are inherited by each manifestation, although the specific structure, form, and content of the manifestation may vary according to factors such as the environment in which it is displayed, the time it is accessed, etc. Regardless of the form the manifestation's rendering ultimately takes, the conceptual mapping to the resource is preserved.

Note: For historical reasons, HTTP/1.x calls a manifestation for an "entity".

Examples: real-time information accessed from a news Web site on a particular day, up-to-the-minute stock quotes, a rendering of a multimedia Web page accessed with a particular client ...

Link

A link expresses one or more (explicit or implicit) relationships between two or more resources.

Note: The type of the relationship can describe relationships like "authored by", "embedded", etc. Types can themselves be identified by URIs as for example is the case for RDF.

Examples: An HTML <a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/#News">...</a> element, an HTML <img src=<http://www.w3.org/icons/w3c-home"> element.

Anchor

An area within a resource that can be the source or destination of zero, one or more links. An anchor may refer to the whole resource, particular parts of the resource, or to particular manifestations of the resource.

Examples: An HTML <a name="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/#News">...</a> element.

Client

The role adopted by an application when it is retrieving and/or rendering resources or resource manifestations.

Examples: A Web browser, an e-mail reader, a Usenet reader ...

Server

The role adopted by an application when it is supplying resources or resource manifestations.

Examples: An HTTP server, a file server, etc ...

Proxy

A proxy is an intermediary which acts as both a server and a client for the purpose of retrieving resources or resource manifestations on behalf of other clients. Clients using a proxy know the proxy is present and that it is an intermediary.

Examples: An HTTP firewall proxy ...

Gateway

A gateway is an intermediary which acts as a server on behalf of some other server with the purpose of supplying resources or resource manifestations from that other server. Clients using a gateway know the gateway is present but does not know that it is an intermediary.

Examples: An HTTP to FTP gateway

Message

A unit of communication exchanged between equivalent network layers or services, located at different hosts.

Examples: A datagram sent from one Internet layer to another, an e-mail sent from one e-mail reader and received at another ...

Request

A message describing an atomic operation to be carried out in the context of a specified resource.

Examples: HTTP GET, POST, PUT, and HEAD requests ...

Response

A message containing the result of an executed request.

Examples: An HTML document, a server error message ...

User

The principal using a client to interactively retrieve and render resources or resource manifestations.

Examples: A person using a Web browser, a person using an e-mail reader, a person using a CRT terminal emulator ...

Publisher

The principal responsible for the publication of a given resource and for the mapping between the resource and any of its resource manifestations. See also the term Web Site Publisher

Examples: A person writing an e-mail message, a person composing a Web page

2. The Scope of the Web from the Perspective of Web Characterization

The primitive elements defined above are useful when talking about the Web in general but are too broad in practice to enable us to characterize the Web with the desired level of rigor. This does not mean that we do not consider the general terms important or interesting, but that we need a mechanism for limiting the scope of the problem of characterizing the Web.

Therefore, we define the following terms to address the question of "What is the Web?" from the perspective of Web Characterization. For the purposes of Web Characterization research, the Web may be viewed as consisting of three components: the core, the neighborhood, and the periphery:

Scope of the Web from
WCA's perspective

where

Web Core

The collection of resources residing on the Internet that can be accessed using any implemented version of HTTP as part of the protocol stack (or its equivalent), either directly or via an intermediary.

Notes: By the term "or its equivalent" we consider any version of HTTP that is currently implemented as well as any new standards which may replace HTTP (HTTP-NG, for example). Also, we include any protocol stack including HTTP at any level, for example HTTP running over SSL.

Web Resource

A resource, identified by a URI, that is a member of the Web Core.

Note: The URI identifying the Web Resource does not itself have to be found within the Web Core. That is, a URI written on a bus identifying a resource that is a member of the Web Core identifies a Web Resource.

Web Resource Manifestation

A resource manifestation generated by a Web resource.

Web Neighborhood

The collection of resources directly linked from a Web resource.

Web Neighborhood Resource

A resource, identified by a URI, that is a member of the Web Neighborhood.

Examples: An "ftp" link within an HTML document which can be accessed via HTTP, a "mailto" link within an HTML document which can be accessed via HTTP.

Web Periphery

The collection of resources on the Web which is not part of the Web Core or the Web Neighborhood.

2.1 Web Clients

Concepts relating to the process of accessing Web resources and render Web resource manifestations.

Web Client

A client that is capable of accessing Web resources by issuing requests and render responses containing Web resource manifestations.

Examples: A Web browser, a harvester, a spider ...

Web Request

A Web request is a request issued by a Web client. A Web request can be described as either:

Explicit Web request:
A request that is initiated manually by the user.
Implicit Web request:
A request that is initiated transparently by the Web client, without manual intervention on the part of the user, as an ancillary event corresponding to an explicit Web request.

and as either:

Embedded Web request:
A request for dereferencing a URI embedded within a Web resource manifestation: e.g., following the link in an HTML document, etc.
User-input Web request:
A request for dereferencing a URI supplied by the user directly to the Web client: e.g., typed into the address window, bookmarks, history, etc.

Examples: a) A user follows a link appearing in a HTML document (explicit, embedded Web request). The Web client retrieves the requested HTML document, and also makes an additional request for an image referenced in the HTML document (implicit, embedded Web request); b) A user reads the URI printed on a bus and feeds it to the Web client (explicit, user-input Web request).

Web Request Header

The request header contains information about the request, information about the client itself, and potentially information about any resource manifestation included in the request.

Examples: Sample HTTP request header

Web Request Body

The request body (if any) of an HTTP request is used to carry the payload of the HTTP message.

User Session

A delimited set of user clicks across one or more Web servers.

Example: At a library, a patron sits down at a public Internet-access terminal, accesses one or more Web resources, then relinquishes control of the terminal to another patron.

Episode

A subset of related user clicks that occur within a user session.

Example: Continuing the previous example, the library patron accesses a weather report (episode 1), checks stock prices (episode 2), then downloads a patch for his operating system (episode 3).

2.2 Web Servers

Concepts relating to the process of supplying Web resource manifestations.

Web Server

A server that provides access to Web resources and which supplies Web resource manifestations to the requestor.

Web Response

A Web response is a response issued by a Web server.

Web Response Header

The response header contains information about the response, information about the server itself, and potentially information about any resource manifestation which may or may not be included in the response.

Examples: Sample HTTP Response Header

Web Response Body

The response body (if any) of an HTTP response is used to carry the payload of the HTTP message.

Server Session

A collection of user clicks to a single Web server during a user session. Also called a visit.

Cookie

Data sent by a Web server to a Web client, to be stored locally by the client and sent back to the server on subsequent requests.

Example: When the Web site of an online retail store is accessed for the first time by a particular client, a unique hashcode is sent back to the client to be stored locally. Then, when the client requests URLs from the site, the hashcode is appended to the URL request, allowing the Web site administrators to track the surfing pattern of the customer through the site. 

2.3 Resource Structures

The following concepts relates to the structure of Web content.

Web page

A collection of information, consisting of one or more Web resources, intended to be rendered simultaneously, and identified by a single URI. More specifically, a Web page consists of a Web resource with zero, one, or more embedded Web resources intended to be rendered as a single unit, and referred to by the URI of the one Web resource which is not embedded.

Examples: An image file, an applet, and an HTML file identified and accessed through a single URI, and rendered simultaneously by a Web client.

Note: The components of a Web page can reside at different network locations. The location of the Web page, however, is determined by the URI identifying the page.

Note: The scope of a Web page is limited to the collection of Web resources which are displayed simultaneously by requesting the Web page's URI. The components of a Web page actually rendered in a page view is client-dependent.

Page View

Visual rendering of a Web page in a specific client environment at a specific point in time.

Examples: Displaying a particular Web page in Internet Explorer is a pageview; displaying the same page in Netscape Navigator is a different page view.

Host Page

A Web page identified by a URI containing an <authority> component but where the <path> component is either empty or simply consists of a single "/" only.

Examples: The Web pages identified by http://www.w3.org and http://www.cern.ch are host pages

Web site

A collection of interlinked Web pages, including a host page, residing at the same network location. "Interlinked" is understood to mean that any of a Web site's constituent Web pages can be accessed by following a sequence of references beginning at the site's host page; spanning zero, one or more Web pages located at the same site; and ending at the Web page in question.

Examples: The Web page consisting of the article "Thought Paper on Automatic Recharacterization" is part of the W3C Web site, since it satisfies the two properties mentioned above. First, it resides at the same network location as the W3C host page, http://www.w3.org. Second, we can begin at the W3C host page (http://www.w3.org) and follow a sequence of internal links, ending at the article: specifically:

  1. http://www.w3.org to http://www.w3.org/WCA/, and
  2. http://www.w3.org/WCA/ to http://www.w3.org/WCA/1998/12/aut_char.html

Notes: It is not uncommon for Web sites to be duplicated, or mirrored, on multiple physical host machines (e.g., for load balancing purposes). Typically, it is immaterial to the client (or user) which host machine is used to access the Web site. In this case, it may be useful to consider this collection of "physical" Web sites, located at multiple host machines, as one "logical" Web site. This is possible in the case where a single domain name is mapped to each of the host machines; the logical Web site can then be identified using the unique domain name. If there is no unique domain name that can be applied to the collection of duplicate sites, we consider each physical host machine as a separate Web site.

Independent Web Page

A Web page that is not part of the Web site associated with its network location. Specifically, it is not possible to reach the Web page in question by traversing a sequence of links internal to the Web site, beginning at the host page.

Examples: If a page is mounted on a Web server, but is not linked to by any page on the Web site associated with the server, then the page is like an "island" on the Web. The only way the page can be accessed is through explicit knowledge of its URI.  

Web Site Publisher

A person or corporate body that is the primary claimant to the rewards or benefits resulting from usage of the Web site, incurs at least part of the costs necessary to produce and distribute the site, and exercises editorial control over the finished form of the Web site and its content. See also the term publisher.

Examples: The W3C is the publisher of the site located at http://www.w3.org/ ...

Subsite

A cluster of Web pages within a Web site, that is maintained by a different publisher than that of the parent Web site, or host site. The subsite publisher exercises editorial control over the Web pages comprising the subsite, perhaps restrained by some broad guidelines imposed by the host site publisher.

Examples: An Internet service provider supplying hosting services to its customers. All of the customers' Web sites may be located at the same IP address, but nevertheless represent logically independent sites (and, in the case of virtual hosting, may even have distinct domain names).

Web Collection

A portion or section of a Web site, consisting of two or more Web pages, that represents a non-trivial, self-contained resource, but is still maintained by the same publisher of the overall Web site.

Examples: Web journal, electronic monograph, photo gallery ...

Supersite

A single, logical Web site that extends over multiple network locations, but is intended to be viewed as a single Web site. It is transparent to the user that the site is distributed over multiple locations. A single host page applies to the entire supersite.

Examples: The resources available from a particular entity may be distributed over multiple servers, but users access the supersite through one host page, and view the distributed resources as one logical site.

4. References

Other useful places to look for terminology sections are


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