HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the official technical language used to create Internet websites. HTML documents carry special instructions called markups. The markups tell computers how to display web pages.
HTML uses tags—words inside brackets—to divide a document into sections called elements. One chief element, the body, contains most of the content a web user will see when visiting the site. All of this information appears between the tags <body> and </body>. Other tags within the body specify the design of the content or insert pictures and hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a specially highlighted word on a web page. When clicked on, the link takes the user to another page with related information or media.
Another major element of an HTML document is the head. It is enclosed between the tags <head> and </head>. The head element contains the document’s title and additional information that is not displayed to the web user. This information, marked with meta tags, helps programs called search engines guide users to the web page.
In 1980, Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working in Switzerland, began to develop the idea for a system of hypertext (text connected by hyperlinks) on what would become the World Wide Web. It took more than 10 years to develop all of the required systems. An early version of HTML became widely used in the mid-1990’s. Software developers continue to enhance HTML’s capabilities.
