Attribute value question

Attribute value question

Hi folks. I'm working through my newb status. Your patience is appreciated.

So, I'm going through a thrilling tome called "JQuery in Action" and I just worked through an exercise to set attribute values. Here's the script...

<script type="text/javascript">

$('*').attr('title',function(index) {
return('I am element'+index+'and my name is' +(this.id ? this.id:'unset');});
</script>

Now, there are plenty of elements in my html with id values, but shouldn't I see the elements physically appended with a "title" attribute? Where do those values exist then? I sort of had this idea I'd refresh the page and then the html code would be updated or something.

Yes, I know this is probably a somewhat silly question. Thanks for your patience.