How is the server different from publishing web pages?
When you publish web pages, a set of static pages is created at publish time and then they do not change. With the server, each page is only created when the viewer clicks on a link from their browser. That is, the server generates the pages dynamically. This means that they are up to date, and, more importantly, it can generate a much wider range of views on the data. For example, the server lets you search catalogs, and generates new pages for the search results. It also has functions for plotting and mining data as charts and calendars. And the server does dynamic networking with other local servers so you get a local view of all the shared catalogs with minimal configuration.
