What they did was create a language that computers
would recognize and act upon, much like what a printer was
already able to do. When you send a file to the printer,
one with text and graphics, your computer tells the
printer, line by line, pixel by pixel, this is a piece of
text, this is a graphic, this is blank. The printer has a
piece of software of it's own that tells it what to do
each time it sees "text" or "graphic"
or "blank".
While that is a simplified version of course, it suits
our purposes. Web browsers work the same as the piece of
software in the printer, taking the words "text"
or "image" or dozens upon dozens of others and
telling your computer how to display them correctly. And
those two guys figured out how to make that happen - very
cool I think!
Now let's learn how URLs (not pronounced
"Earls" by the way) work...
