‘Digital’ in Business: Web technology

Communication plays a pivotal role in the business world. It could be businesses interacting with their customers, partners or even competitors.

Computers are the major facilitators of this communication nowadays. Computers can send and receive information faster and better. However , they cannot communicate the way people do, they require codes.

Web technology is the process of communication between the computers with each other, using mark-up languages.

Before delving into the nitty-gritty details of web technology, let us look at a few stats about South Africa:

• 31.8 million active internet users (Statista 2019)
• 28.99 million active mobile internet users (Statista 2019)
• 60% of South African population uses smartphones (We are Social, 2018)
• South Africans spend an average of 3 hours and 17 minutes on the internet per day via a mobile device. (We are Social, 2018)

Looking at these stats, clearly there is a need for businesses to invest in Web technology. 60% of South Africans with at least a smartphone(computer) means that a business can easily establish a communication with anyone in this pool, if not all.

Web technologies

Browsers

These are interpreters of the web. They request information (for example, from Google serves) and then show us in the way we can understand.

Some of the common browsers available are Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

Mark-up languages

These are the codes/ languages used in creating websites and apps.They are stored in the web servers and are interpreted by browsers into what we understand upon request.

Examples of mark-up languages are HTML , XML etc.

Programming languages

Vocabulary or grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific tasks.

They may be used to determine how the websites and apps behave when users interact with them. Examples include JavaScript, PHP, Python etc.

Protocols

Instructions for how to pass information back and forth between computes and devices.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol through which a website can get to the browser from the server.

Websites , apps and search engines

Server

Websites and application codes are stored on the servers

Client

Users of applications or websites are called clients. These can be mobile devices , tablets, laptops etc.

*Usually, multiple clients are interacting with the same application stored on the server. This quality gives businesses the ability to address an unlimited size of an audience, without being limited by distance or boundary.

Search engines

Platforms like the famous Google, designed to respond to requests by searching the information from the websites and applications on the servers.

*During the design and development of your website or application, search engine optimization (SEO), should be a priority. Good SEO practices will make your site visible on the first page of search results to your prospect customers.

In conclusion…

Every business should invest in web technology to benefit from the exposure and accessibility it creates. South Africans are adapting to online banking, online shopping, use of blogging software. This shows that they are open to web based software.