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A search engine like Google, for
example, displays a list of matches to words you type in.
And a Web cookie on your computer can remember who you
are, and shows you a page with personalized information.
How can a Web page remember the
way you organized your Start Page? Actually, it
can't. But it can send information it gets from you or your
computer to a separate program that can, in turn, evaluate
that information, and send back a custom Web page.
Using the search example above,
when you type in your keywords and press the RETURN or ENTER
key, here's what happens:
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Your browser sends your keywords
to the Web server.
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The Web server sends the
keywords to a search program.
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The search program looks in its
database for matches to the keywords, and creates a custom
Web page.
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The search program "returns" the
custom Web page to the server.
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The Web server delivers the
custom Web page to your browser.
Of course the technology that
allows a Web server to communicate with other software
programs has been around for several years now in the form
of search engines and online databases. But today it allows
you to pay bills and balance your checkbook online, create a
Web site, or buy and sell on sites like eBay and
Amazon.com.
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