In The Beginning There Was HTML…

This is the first part of a beginners' tutorial covering some simple terms about the internet and internet advertising. It is meant for those brand new to website promotion. These terms lay the groundwork for much of the material covered for promoting a business online. For those already versed in the subject, it may be easy to forget that first steps have to begin somewhere. The terms and the concepts are easy. A basic understanding will give you the foundation for further learning. This first part is about html, what it is and why it's important to us.

Html (spoken as the letters H-T-M-L) stands for HyperText Markup Language. That may not leave much to go on, but a little background can clarify things. You may already be familiar with the term link. You click on a word, usually highlighted in some way, and are taken to another web page or a website that the word is linked to. This simple concept, clickable words that take you to new pages, is called hypertext.

Hypertext, intended as a means of quick and easy information retrieval, was a very simple concept bought to fruition by the dawn of the Information Age. It is the simplest of concepts, however, that may well be the most powerful because by the very nature of their simplicity they can't be disassembled. They give a foundation which, rather than being outgrown, can be built upon. Though hypertext had been around for a while, it was the visionary founders of html who conceptualized the World Wide Web. In hindsight it seems almost an effortless step. You create something sublime, naturally you want to show it off and share it with the world.

To complete the thought, keep in mind that it is not only text that can be hyperlinked, but also images. The linking part is the information retrieval part. By clicking a link, you are able to retrieve the information that the hyperlink is connected to.

So now you know the hyptertext part. You could think of hyper text as the magic part of it, the part of the equation that set the world on fire. Markup language, well, that's the geek part. A markup language is a language of code, universally accepted, that when translated means certain things. It is a collection of letters and symbols, all from the computer keyboard, that in certain combinations create certain results. Html writers call these combinations tags. Tags are used not only for linking but also for formatting the text and images to make up the document, the part that you see.

Html is the foundation of our internet experience. And it is reachable too. Its seeming complexity lies not in complicated equations but rather its layers. With layer upon layer of completely simple commands, it's an example where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All it takes is a little patience to learn html. Though, one doesn't even have to do that. It's easy enough to pick up pieces of it to use as desired. And there is something satisfying about getting under the hood of a webpage. Not to mention it sounds amazingly smart to be able to say things like, "I altered the code."

So now you have not just a definition of html but hopefully a look into the marvels of it. Keep that mindset on the wonders of these things that make up this world. These are the tools of our limitless opportunities. They are the allies of our potential. Take the mindset of wonder, add you, and your possibilities, and watch what happens. If something as simple as html could change the world, imagine what you could do.

© 2009 Louise Ciofalo