How the Web Works
Client/Server architecture: the server hosts documents from which clients request documents via a URL. Once a document has been received by client, the server disconnects [right about now I am struggling to push Celine Dion back into her wee box...].
URI-uniform resource identifiier. URL (locator) is a subset of URI.
URLs are good when they are: descriptive and meaningful (makes it easier for humans to point client in right direction), stable, and technology-independent (if tech changes there should not be need to change the URL).
URL Shortening Services
Having an informative URL is useful for various purposes (e.g. searching). But certain media handle shorter URLs better. A long URL could be changed by software - particularly for longer addresses. Short URL points to a re-direction server which re-routes connection to desired location. Yet such services represent increased chance of link-rot since there are a smaller number of combinations to choose from. Also providers can disappear. Potential security risk in that the link does not point to the target domain - we could end up at a site of nastiness - perhaps called DoomBotCentral (or even DoomWormCentral, DoomPhishingCentral etc...)
HTML
Elements and tags - computer geeks adore trees (is this perhaps a sign they are really repressed hippies?) but they like them upside down with root at top (perhaps a sign that they really don't get outside enough). Elements - a paragraph, heading, image, link - "any discrete unit of meaningful, discrete information." Elements are expressed through tags. Metadata in the head + title (not actually part of the page). HTML - dictates the logical structure of your document whilst style-sheets tell you how this logical is viewed.
What about Web 2.0?
Existing internet and WWW infrastructure - simply the way in which people are using the web structures to prosume info. Infrastructure was not designed to be dynamic but a repository of static documents.
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