|
Stop
Paddling and Start Surfing
- A Beginners Guide to Web Browsers and Moving around the Internet.
Page
2.
By Matt Western.
Some
of the more popular search engines are…
Google
-- Yahoo --
Altavista
-- Dogpile
-- MSN --
Overture
For
example, let's say you are looking for information on Fords latest
SUV called the Tractor. You know the name of the new SUV but you
have no idea where, on the Internet, you would go to find more
information on it.
The
easiest way is to visit a search engine and ask it.
When
you visit a search engine you will see an area on the first page
of the search engine that allows you to type words into it. This
is where you would enter your search query (the thing you are
search for, or, the question you want to ask).
So
in this area (actually called the search query filed) you could
type 'ford suv tractor'
The
search engine will most likely return many results. In amongst
those results somewhere near the top of the list, you will find
the most relevant results the search engine could find that it
thought related to your search query.
When
you click on any of these links you will transferred to another
web site. This web site should contain information on what you
searched for, namely the new Ford SUV Tractor.
So
you can see from this example that if you know what you're looking
for but don't know where to find it, search engines can be a very
fast and easy way to help locate what you're looking for.
When in doubt, use a search engine.
Ok, so what if you know where you want to go, you have the address
(www.anysite.com) of the web site you want to visit, but you don't
know how to get there!
How
do you get that web site address off that bit of paper and into
your computer?
Introducing
Web Browsers.
Web
Browsers
All
web browsers have a location or area called an address field.
The address field is where you enter the address of the web site
you wish to visit.
As
I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the two most popular
web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape's
Navigator (Netscape)
Internet Explorer (IE)
Below
is a picture of Internet Explorer with the address field displayed.
And
here is a picture of Netscape Navigator with the Address field
displayed.
The Address Field
The
address field is where you type the address of the web site you
wish to visit. Enter the web site address into the address field
and click the 'Go' button at the end of the address field or easier,
simply hit the enter / return key on your keyboard.
The
address field is where you type in the address for any type of
web site, it doesn't matter if you're wanting to visit a search
engine, a newspaper, a television channel, a food company or anything,
this is where you type in the web sites' address.
If
you know the very page you want to look at you can enter that
in here to. For example, a web page address would look something
like http://www.anywebsite.com/anypage.html
Entering
this into the address field and hitting enter will take you straight
to that web page.
Examples
of correct and incorrect web site addresses.
| Correct |
Incorrect
|
| http://www.thissite.com |
http://www.this
site.com |
|
-
Web site addresses cannot have spaces in them
|
| www.thissite.com |
ww.this_site.com |
| - Domain names cannot contain underscores |
-
Some web sites may not work if you leave out the 'www' prefix.
The only way you will know is to try it and see.
Do I need to type in the HTTP bit every time?
No
you don't. It is not needed. The web browser will append it to
the web sites' address for you.
Do
I need to type in the WWW every time?
You
will find that some web sites will appear without the WWW in the
address filed and some wont.
It
depends on how the web site has been setup. The only way to find
out is to try it.
I recommend you include it every time.
Stop
Paddling and Start Surfing
- A Beginners Guide to Web Browsers and Moving around the Internet.
Page 1.
Page 2.
Page
3.
Article
© Matt Western - deTechnify.com
**********************************************************
Matt Western has been working in the electronics and IT areas
since 1983. These days he heads up deTechnify.com a web site aimed
at clearing away the technical haze surrounding computers computing
and the internet.
You can contact Matt via http://www.detechnify.com
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