Protocols and standards

Web protocols and standards are the building blocks of the internet. All websites and all content adhere to some kind of protocol or standard in order for them to be seen or communicated. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) maintains definitions for various protocols and standards including CSS, HTML and XML. The W3C isn’t the only organization though, more complex technologies such as Flash, PHP and ASP.NET are defined and maintained by their creators, Adobe, The PHP Group and Microsoft respectively.