Revision 791409 of What is the difference between webpage, website, web server, and search engine?

<div class="summary">
<p>In this article we distinguish various web-related concepts: webpages, websites, web servers, and search engines.</p>
</div>

<table class="standard-table learn-box">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Prerequisites:</th>
   <td>You should know <a href="/en-US/Learn/How_the_Internet_works">how the Internet works</a>.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <th scope="row">Objective:</th>
   <td>Learn the difference between a webpage, a website, a web server, and a search engine.</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Summary">Summary</h2>

<p>As with any area of knowledge, the web comes with extensive jargon. Don't worry, we won't overwhelm you with all of that (we have a <a href="/en-US/docs/Glossary">glossary</a> if you're curious). But we do need to clarify some basic terms at the outset, since you'll hear these expressions all the time as you read on. It's easy to confuse these terms sometimes, since they refer to related but different functionalities. We'll cover more details as we explore further, but at first you should become familiar with these quick definitions:</p>

<dl>
 <dt>webpage</dt>
 <dd>a document displayable in a web browser</dd>
 <dt>website</dt>
 <dd>a collection of webpages</dd>
 <dt>web server</dt>
 <dd>a computer that hosts a website</dd>
 <dt>search engine</dt>
 <dd>a website that helps you find webpages</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Active_Learning">Active Learning</h2>

<p><em>There is no active learning available yet. <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/MDN/Getting_started">Please, consider contributing</a>.</em></p>

<h2 id="Deeper_dive">Deeper dive</h2>

<p>So, let's dig deeper into how those four terms are related and why they can be confused sometimes.</p>

<h3 id="Webpage">Webpage</h3>

<p>A <em>webpage</em> is a simple document displayable by a {{Glossary("browser")}}. Such document is written in the {{Glossary("HTML")}} language (we will discuss this further in <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML">other articles</a>) and can embed various extra resources such as</p>

<ul>
 <li><em>style information</em> — which defines a page's look-and-feel;</li>
 <li><em>scripts</em> — which add interactivity to the page; or</li>
 <li><em>media</em> (images, sounds, videos).</li>
</ul>

<div class="note">
<p><strong>Note: </strong>Browsers can also display other documents such as {{Glossary("PDF")}} files or images, but the term <strong>webpage</strong> specifically refers to HTML documents. Otherwise we only use the term <strong>document</strong>.</p>
</div>

<p>All webpages available on the web are reachable through a unique address. To access a page, just type its address in your browser address bar:</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Example of a web page address in the browser address bar" src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8529/web-page.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 239px; float: left;" /></p>

<p>A <em>website</em> is a collection of linked webpages (plus their associated resources) that share a unique domain name. Each webpage of a given website provides explicit links—most of the time in the form of clickable portion of text—that allow the user to move from one page of the website to another.</p>

<p>To access a website, type its domain name in your browser address bar, and the browser will display the website's main webpage, or <em>homepage </em>(casually referred as "the home"):</p>

<p><img alt="Example of a web site domain name in the browser address bar" src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8531/web-site.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 365px;" /></p>

<p><em>Webpage </em>and <em>website </em>are especially easy to confuse when a <em>website </em>contains only one <em>webpage. </em>Such a website is sometimes called a <em>single-page website.</em></p>

<h3 id="Web_server">Web server</h3>

<p>A <em>web server</em> is a computer hosting one or more <em>websites</em>. "Hosting" means that all the <em>webpages </em>and their supporting files are available on that computer. The <em>web server</em> will send any <em>webpage</em> from the <em>website</em> it is hosting to any user's browser, per user request.</p>

<p>Don't confuse <em>websites</em> and <em>web servers</em>. For example, if you hear someone say, "My website is not responding", it actually means that the <em>web server</em> is not responding and therefore the <em>website</em> is not available. More importantly, since a web server can host multiple websites, the term <em>web server</em> is never used to designate a website, as it could cause great confusion. In our previous example, if we said, "My web server is not responding", it means that no websites on that web server are available.</p>

<h3 id="Search_engine">Search engine</h3>

<p>Search engines are a common source on confusion on the web. A search engine is a special kind of website that helps users find webpages from <em>other </em>websites.</p>

<p>There are plenty out there: <a href="https://www.google.com/">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.bing.com/">Bing</a>, <a href="https://www.yandex.com/">Yandex</a>, <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">DuckDuckGo</a>, and many more. Some are generic, some are specialized about certain topics. Use whichever you prefer.</p>

<p>Many beginners on the web confuse search engines and browsers. Let's make it clear: A <em><strong>browser</strong></em> is a software that retrieves and displays webpages; a <strong><em>search engine</em></strong> is a website that helps people find webpages from other websites. The confusion arises because, the first time someone launches a browser, the browser displays a search engine's homepage. This makes sense, because, obviously, the first thing you want to do with a browser is to find a web page to display. Don't confuse the infrastructure (e.g., the browser) with the service (e.g., the search engine). The distinction will help you quite a bit, but even some professionals speak loosely, so don't feel anxious about it.</p>

<p>Here is an instance of Firefox showing a Google search box as its default startup page:</p>

<p><img alt="Example of Firefox nightly displaying a custom Google page as default" src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8533/search-engine.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 399px;" /></p>

<h2 id="Next_steps">Next steps</h2>

<ul>
 <li>Dig deeper: <a href="/en-US/docs/Learn/What_is_a_web_server">What is a web server</a></li>
 <li>See how web pages are linked into a web site: <a href="/en-US/docs/Learn/Understanding_links_on_the_web">Understanding links on the web</a></li>
</ul>

<p>&nbsp;</p>