Browsing and Searching on the Internet
 
Background Information

WHAT IS A BROWSER? A browser is a piece of software used to explore the Internet. You cannot view the Internet without a browser.

DO ALL BROWSERS WORK THE SAME WAY? No! Browsers are not like eye glasses, which you put on to see a clear fixed image. What you actually see (or don't see at all) on a given web page depends on what browser you are looking through. Change browsers and the same page may look totally different. The colour of the graphics and text may be strikingly different, the formatting may be different, special features may be visible or invisible, and the type size may be larger or smaller. In other words, through one browser, a web page may look great, through another it may look lousy. (This is one of the features which makes web publishing so much trickier than desktop publishing.)

WHAT TYPE OF BROWSER IS BEST? This depends on the individual. Microsoft Internet Explorer www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm and Netscape Communicator www.netscape.com/ are currently the two most popular browsers. Some people install both but this practice makes 'bookmarking' inconvenient. A very small number of people use other less common web browsers, such as: NeoPlanet, Opera, Lynx or Tango.

Further information on browsers can be found at Browser Basics
www.microsoft.com/insider/internet/articles/browse.htm

SOFWeb also provides an excellent section on using a web browser at
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/explore.htm#browser

People using Internet Explorer can find detailed information at
www.microsoft.com/TechNet/win98/manuals/GetStart/internet.asp

WHAT IS A SEARCH ENGINE? This is an electronic tool you use to search the Internet for information. There are many different types of search engines. Some of the most common search engines are:

Alta Vista www.altavista.digital.com/
Yahoo www.yahoo.com/
Lycos www.lycos.com/
Excite www.excite.com/
Infoseek www.infoseek.com.au/
WebCrawler www.webcrawler.com/
HotBot www.hotbot.lycos.com/

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK? Search engines work in different ways. Some use automatic web-crawling 'spiders', which search the Internet for pages relating to the key word you have entered. Generally, they are unable to assess the value of the sites they eventually list. The Victorian site, SOFWeb, has an excellent site describing the various search engines (Australian and international) at www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/loti/mod3/search.htm

DO ALL SEARCH ENGINES WORK THE SAME WAY? No! Search engines use very different methods to search the Internet for information, and so produce very different results. Differences can relate to the quality, quantity and type of search results on exactly the same 'key word search'. All search engines have inherent strengths and weaknesses, depending on the type of search they are being asked to perform.

DO YOU HAVE TO USE THE SAME SEARCH ENGINE ALL THE TIME? No! Search engines aren't software that you have to install. They're based on web sites, which you visit and search from there. There's absolutely no reason why you should stick to one search engine all the time. In fact, different search engines have different strengths and weaknesses, in terms of their ability to search for particular information.

HOW DO YOU 'SURF' THE NET? The actual steps you take will vary, depending on the browser software you are using. A general outline of the process can be found at www.microsoft.com/insider/internet/articles/search.htm

More advanced information on Internet searching can be found at 'LivingInternet.com' at www.livinginternet.com/w/wu_expert.htm

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOUR INTERNET SEARCHES ARE TOO SLOW? First, buy a faster modem. If that's still not fast enough, replace your telephone line connection with an ISDN line or even a cable connection. Try upgrading your computer's processor, RAM and video RAM. All of these options cost money. The downside is that, however fast you make things at your end, you may still be hamstrung by a slow connection somewhere else in the world, depending on the Internet sites you are trying to access.

HOW RELIABLE IS INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE INTERNET? There have always been unethical writers and researchers who deliberately publish information they know to be untrue or inaccurate. There have even been publishers who have knowingly and deliberately published misinformation. Sometimes, this has even been endorsed/organised by governments (especially via newspapers and television) 'for the public good' (such as part of a police strategy to catch a criminal or to influence election results) or 'in the national interest' (such as the cover-up of the extent of the bombing of Darwin in WW2).

The only real difference between paper-based or electronic-based media (TV, radio, video, etc.) and the Internet is that there are fewer mainstream 'truth hurdles' between an unethical person/publisher and the receiver of the inaccurate/untrue information. Anyone (sane or insane, criminal or law-abiding) anywhere, and for any reason (moral or immoral, creative or destructive) can publish 'information' on their own web site. It is important to remember that no information, from any source (traditional or digital) should ever be regarded as 'gospel' truth. Always retain a grain of doubt, unless you are prepared to engage in verifying the information yourself first-hand (which is often impossible). Notwithstanding this advice, the size of the 'grains of doubt' you hold about the veracity of the information obtained from different web sites will vary from microscopic to boulder-size, depending on your assessment of their credibility, and their relationship to organisations you perceive to be credible.

FURTHER INFORMATION ON SEARCHING THE WEB. The following sites provide even more detailed information on how to search the web.

'Using the Internet for Research Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)'. This shows you how to perform searches for research purposes.
www.faqs.org/faqs/internet/research-faq/part1/

'The Professional Research FAQ'. Useful if you need to conduct professional research, using the Internet.
www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/internet/pro-research-faq.html

WHAT IS A CACHE? Many web browsers allow you to store copies of World Wide Web documents on your hard disk, so that you don't have to download them each time from a far away server (this saves money and time). Internet Explorer, for instance, can use up to ten per cent of your hard disk for caching. This percentage can be varied. If you don't want to use a stored (cached) copy of a web document you access regularly, most browsers have some type of 'refresh' facility, which you click to download the absolute latest version of the web site.

WHAT IS THE LATEST 'CUTTING EDGE' TECHNOLOGY ON THE INTERNET? The following web site is not an education site but has been provided to give conference participants some idea of the most sophisticated multimedia technology currently available, and an appreciation of the direction Internet communication is going.

ananova.com

www.ananova.com

This is a new and increasing popular cyber international news service (with a focus on the USA). You will need to install 'Real Player' video streaming software in order to view/hear Ananova (the cyberwoman newsreader). The basic Real Player software can be downloaded for free at www.real.com/player/index.html. Real Player also enables you to play music, listen to radio stations over the Internet. Of course, to hear Ananova, you will need a soundcard installed in your computer and speakers.

Vocabulary

BACK. This is the feature generally used by web browsers to return you to the previous web page or web site you have visited. It is often marked by an arrow pointing left.

BOOKMARK. This is a feature of most web browsers, which allows you to store frequently used web sites addresses (URLs). This way, you can regularly return to a useful site quickly and simply.

DIAL-UP ACCESS. This is the means of connecting one computer to another, using a modem and a regular telephone line.

DOMAIN NAME. Every Internet site has a unique identifying name, known as a domain name.

FORWARD. This is the feature generally used by web browsers to return you to the next web page or web site (but only if you've been there before!). It is often marked by an arrow pointing right.

FRAMES. Some web pages are designed with 'fences', so that the pages are visually divided into well-defined sections. Often these framed sections have their own separate scroll bars, and design features. Some web sites provide Internet users with the option of viewing their page without frames. Some Internet users hate frames (this is a quirky debate within cyberculture).

GIF. There are two 'formats' for putting graphics and photos on the 'Net so that they can be viewed by web browsers. One is GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) and the other is Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG, or simply JPG).

GIGABYTE. This is an electronic measure applied to the size of files sent via the Internet. One gigabyte is one billion bytes (one thousand megabytes).

HOME PAGE. This is the 'front door' of a web site. Home pages usually include introductory information and 'doors' through to other sections of the web site.

HYPERTEXT. This is the code that is used to create Internet pages. You might see html as the file extension of many web pages you visit. This means those pages have been written using html code. The beauty of html code is that, unlike some other file formats, it is portable over all computer platforms (Macs, PCs, Unix, and other rarer platforms).

HYPERLINKS. These are pieces of text in an Internet document which, when clicked on, take you to another section of the same web site, or to another web site altogether. Hyperlinked text can be recognised easily because it is a different colour to the main text. Once you visit a hyperlink from the primary web page you have accessed, the colour of the hyperlinked text changes colour again, giving you a quick indication of which links you've already visited. This is a useful feature when you're reading a web documents which has lots of useful hotlinks, and you're jumping around, in and out of a lot of different web sites.

REFRESH. One of the mysteries of cyberspace is that sometimes a page gets 'stuck' when its downloading or you might experience only a partial download (it's obvious vital features of the site are missing). Refreshing the page may fix the problem. Use 'Refresh' also to renew and update the version of a web site which may be stored for convenient reference in your computer's cache.

STOP. This important browser feature does exactly what it says: it stops the downloading you have previously initiated. You might use stop when a download is taking too long and you get sick of waiting or have changed your mind and wish to go elsewhere. 'Stop' is often displayed as a red circle with a cross in it.

URL. A Uniform Resource Locator (pronounced U -R -L) is a fancy name for an Internet address. Each page of the Internet has a URL. If you frequently visit a particular Internet page, save the URL in your 'Favourites' section.

WEB BROWSER. This is the software program you use to view World Wide Web pages. Popular web browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mosaic or Lynx. Lynx is a text-only browser. By contrast, Netscape is a graphical browser because it allows you to see pictures as well as text.

WEB SITE. This is a collection of linked pages, which reside on a web server (computer) that is linked to the Internet.

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1. Check out the Internet Explorer browser web site
   www.microsoft.com/windows/Ie/TechInfo/default.ASP
   A. What is 'Offline Browsing'? B. What is 'Windows Radio'? C. Name three 'Web Accessories'
.

2. Imagine your school is about to re-examine its policy on school uniform. Search the Internet to collect new information (i.e., ideas and practices you hadn't heard about, or considered, before) from at least five different sources within Australia about school uniform policies. Write down the URLs of these five sources, and the new information you collected.


3. Use three different browsers to search for listings of websites on the subject of 'homework'. Compare the number of listings found. In your estimation, which browser produced the most useful list for principals (in this case, make your rough assessment from the first ten sites).


4. Imagine your (secondary) school is about to draft a policy on drug use by students. Search the Internet to collect new information (i.e., ideas and practices you hadn't heard about, or considered, before) from at least three different countries about different school's drug policies. Write down the URLs of these three sources, and the new information you collected.


5. You want to include advice on good parenting strategies in your school newsletter, and have never done so before. Search the Internet for three excellent sources of information you can use for that purpose and note down the three URLs.


6. Find a web site you believe contains unreliable or even criminal information. What are your reasons for this belief?


7. Find the web sites of five adventure school camps in your State/Territory. Which one has the most appeal based on the web site information?


8. At the end of the school term (maybe at the end of this Online Conference!) you may need a holiday. Search the Internet for a 2-week 'holiday of your dreams' under $10,000 (per person).


9. Visit the cybernewsreader, Ananova, at www.ananova.com What colour is her hair?


10. Your primary school needs to improve its approach to literacy. You have heard that literacy is a major focus at present in the United Kingdom. Search the Internet for three new ideas/policies/programs that might be considered/adapted by your school community. Note down the web sites you obtained this new information from, and their URLs.


11. Visit the entertainment world of some of your online students by logging on to www.bored.com Where did you go, what was your favorite site, and why do you think this sort of site appeals to young people?