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Web documents, browser, information retrieval

Short answer

A web document is an HTML resource identified by a URL, and a browser is client software that requests and renders it. Retrieval steps are URL entry, DNS lookup, TCP connection, HTTP request, server processing, HTTP response, and rendering.

Define web documents and web browser? Explain major steps of information retrieval.

Web document

A web document (web page) is a file on a web server, written mostly in HTML, that can contain text, images, links, audio, video and scripts. It is identified by a URL. Types: static (fixed HTML file), dynamic (generated by server scripts such as PHP) and active (contains client-side scripts like JavaScript).

Web browser

A web browser is client software that requests web documents from servers, interprets HTML/CSS/JavaScript and displays them to the user. Examples: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari. Main parts: user interface, rendering engine, JavaScript engine and networking component.

Major steps of information retrieval

  1. URL entry: The user types a URL or clicks a link.
  2. DNS lookup: The browser resolves the domain name to the server's IP address.
  3. Connection: A TCP connection is opened to the server (port 80, or 443 with TLS for HTTPS).
  4. HTTP request: The browser sends a request such as GET /index.html HTTP/1.1 with headers.
  5. Server processing: The web server locates the file or runs a script/database query to build the page.
  6. HTTP response: The server returns a status code (200 OK, 404 Not Found) and the HTML content.
  7. Rendering: The browser parses HTML, fetches linked CSS, images and scripts, and displays the page.
  8. Close/reuse: The connection is closed or kept alive for further requests.
URL -> DNS -> TCP connect -> HTTP GET
    -> Server finds/generates page -> HTTP response
    -> Browser renders page

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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