Chapter Four: Surfing the Net

Table of Contents: Course Syllabus Course Assignments and Due Dates Tips and Tricks Part One: Understanding The Internet Chapter One: Definitions Chapter Two: How the Internet is Changing the World Part Two: Getting On The Internet Chapter Three: Getting Connected Chapter Four: Surfing the Net Part Three: Communicating Over The Internet Chapter Five: Internet Etiquette (Netiquette) Chapter Six: Electronic Mail Chapter Seven: Listserv Chapter Eight: Usenet Newsgroups Chapter Nine: Communicating in Real Time Chapter Ten: Telnet Part Four: Finding Things On The Internet Chapter Eleven: Searching for Information Chapter Twelve: Commonly Found Internet File Types Chapter Thirteen: Downloading From the Internet Chapter Fourteen: Bibliographic Style for Citing Internet Resources Part Five: Creating Web Pages Chapter Fifteen: Web Page Creation Strategies Chapter Sixteen: Web Page Design Chapter Seventeen: How HTML Works Chapter Eighteen: Creating Your Web Page Resume Chapter Nineteen: Putting Images on Web Pages Chapter Twenty: Using Tables for Advanced Web Page Layout Chapter Twenty-one: Making a Local Web and a Home Page Chapter Twenty-two: Publishing Files on the World Wide Web Part Six: Using Multimedia On The Internet Chapter Twenty-three: How Web Browsers Do Multimedia Chapter Twenty-four: Waveform Audio Recording Part Seven: Planning For The Future Of The Internet Chapter Twenty-five: Societal Issues Chapter Twenty-six: Emerging Technology Chapter Twenty-seven: How to Keep Up Send E-Mail to Instructor Internet Resources Home Page

After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Know what it means to "surf" the Net. Select a Web browser and use it to go surfing. Understand the elements of a Uniform resource locator (URL). Know how to go to any URL on the World Wide Web. Visit some of the most exciting sites on the World Wide Web. Understand the concepts of linking and browsing. Understand the concepts of a Web page, a home page, and a default page. Manipulate a window by sizing, scrolling, hiding, maximizing, and switching among multiple windows. Navigate using the browser's buttons and shortcut keys. Poke around a Web site by manipulating its URL. Avoid distractions and stay focused on the purpose for which you visited a Web site. Bookmark your favorite Web sites for quick recall whenever you want to visit them again. Know how to create more screen space to display the maximum amount of a Web page inside your browser window. Strategizing Process "How do I find...." is the area where the WWW is the weakest. A compounding problem is that some information is not yet available on the Internet. Therefore, to find information in the most quick and efficient way possible, you need to develop strategies that will increase your chances of success. Tip: Searching for a known item (URL, company/individual/organization name) offers the most chance for success. Think of likely sources that would offer the information you are seeing, i.e. extrapolate what is probable from what is known. Example: You want information about Windows 98. Who is most likely to have responsible information? Answer: Microsoft (This is the company that developed Windows 98.) Which search method will work best? Address guessing Keyword searching Browsing a subject directory Address Guessing Now that you understand the anatomy of an address or URL (Visit About URLs), you can use that knowledge to construct a URL for the source that you think might have the information you seek. In this case, http://www.microsoft.com Note: Often acronyms are used rather than full names. For example, http://www.ibm.com. Important: Address guessing is not 100% certain. So, what other type of know-item search can you do? In other words, where do you go from here? Answer: Net Search Search Engines (Keyword Searching) Keyword searching is most effective for known-item searches. It is not effective for subject searching--you'll get back an overwhelming number of returns. Here's how keyword searching works. Robots (artificially intelligent agents) search the Internet, noting the text of Web documents, and building databases of words found in those documents. When you make a request, the search software builds its r esults from a database based on words you input. Results can include people's personal pages, as well as substantive information. All search engines have different programs that use different criteria to build their databases. Subject Lists and Directories Web directories make excellent resources and, if you know how to use them, will help you find almost anything you want. The people who maintain these directories use special programs to do most of the work. These programs (called spiders, worms, crawlers, or robots) search the Web looking for new and updated items. There are a number of free, well-maintained directories available on the Web and, in general, there are two ways to use them. First, some directories have home pages organized into categories. To use such a directory, access the home page and choose the category you want. Within that category, there may be subcategories. Thus you can select categories and subcategories until you narrow down your search to find exactly what you want. Other directories allow you to look for something by using a search engine. To use a search engine, you use your browser to fill in a form in which you describe what you are looking for. Once you submit the form, it is sent to the search engine which looks through the directory, finds what you want (if it exists) and sends back the results. Visiting Selected Web Sites: U.C. Berkeley Library: Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) Matisse's Glossary of Internet Terms: URL Finding Information on the Internet: A TUTORIAL Finding Data on the Internet - A Journalist's Guide Internet Guides, Tutorials, and Training Information (Library of Congress) Internet Tips and Tricks ... (john@journalist.com) Search Guide: How to Choose and Use Top Search Engines and Directories; Searching Syntax Hints and Tips for Newbies Providing Information on the World Wide Web (Library of Congress Explore the Internet) CNN Internet Mall ESPN Global SchoolNet NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Government Online (THOMAS) Louvre American Journalism Review News Link Pathfinder Real Estate Classifieds Scholastic Network Smithsonian New York Stock Exchange NASDAQ Stock Exchange TERC Weather Channel White House Assignment to turn in for credit: Go to the home page for Yahoo!. Using the SEARCH feature, find three web sites that deal with bungee jumping. What are their URLS and the title of each site Trace backwards on the URL http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/ref/RR to identify the source in which this resource appears. What is the title of the page you reach when searching the URL listed at the beginning of this paragraph? Delete the /RR and search again. What is the title of this page? Now delete the ref/ portion of the URL and search again. What is the title of this page? Submit your answers Go to: Chapter Three Chapter Five