The web has certainly become one of the most ubiquitous and important publishing spaces around. What defines the web, technically, is html and http. Html is the publishing format and http is the transport protocol.
Let's consider http. This protocol is so simple. Some would say simplistic — it certainly has it share of detractors. While it may not be the most sophisticated protocol around, it gets the job done.
It's a client/server protocol and, like many internet standards, is text-based. The client sends an http request and the server responds with a reply. There are only a few commands in the repertory: 'GET', 'PUT', 'POST', and a few others. See RFC2616 for all the details.
