In this article I will explain how you can move from web site to web site and web page to web page.

To be able to easily move around the Internet, commonly called surfing, you need to be able to do two things…

1 - Jump from one web page and land on another
2 - Be able to easily locate a web page that contains the information you are looking for.

Fortunately, both these tasks are very easy to master.

1 - How Do I Jump from Web Page A and Land on Web Page B?

Moving from web page to web page has to do with hyperlinks.

What's a hyperlink? Well it's not a normal link that has drunk too much coffee.

A hyperlink is like an escalator. Like when you step onto an escalator and get transported to another location, a hyperlink does the same thing.

Hyperlinks are the way in which you move from web page to web page.

Here's a hyperlink that will load this web page up again and return you to this spot >> click this blue text here, it's a hyperlink.

How do you use hyperlinks? Very easily, simply click them.

Once you click on a hyperlink you get transported to another location. This location may be a different spot on the same web page or to another web page or web site altogether.

Possibly the most well known hyperlinks are text hyperlinks. These usually stand out on a page as blue text with an underline similar to this - here's a hyperlink

But not all text hyperlinks look like this. People can make their text hyperlinks look any way they like.

You can usually recognise a text hyperlink because the colour of the hyperlink text on the page will be different to the colour of all the other text. This change in colour usually identifies a hyperlink. Also, you will notice that when you place your mouse cursor over a hyperlink, the cursor will change from an arrow to a hand.

Hyperlinks can also be used with images or pictures.

As an example, a web page may be promoting eggs. On the web page may be a picture of a big hens egg and next it may be written something like, "click the egg to enter".

Being asked to click the egg to enter indicates that the picture of the egg has been set up as a hyperlink - (don't forget to look and see if your mouse cursor turns into a hand, this is a dead give away).

So now we know about hyperlinks, both text and picture hyperlinks.

So what's a hyperlink again?

Hyperlinks are the way in which you move around the Internet. You simply click on a text hyperlink here, a picture hyperlink there and before you know it you're moving around the Internet like a seasoned professional.

2 - How Can I Easily Locate what I'm Looking for?

There are millions of web pages on the Internet, how does anyone ever find anything?

Good question.

We know that we have to click on hyperlinks to get anywhere and what they look like, but what do we do if we know what we are looking for, but don't know where to find it.

That's a very good question and I have a very good answer.

Search engines

Search engines are similar to street directories. Just as you use a street directory to find out how to get from A to B, you do the same thing when looking for something on the Internet by using a search engine.

Search engines are extremely useful tools.

Let's create an example. Let's say you want to find out what the safest automobile is. For this example, let's use the search engine Google.

In the image below you can see I've entered the phrase 'what is the safest automobile' and entered it into the Google search engine.

And on the next page you can see the results that I got back.

As you can see from the above image, I have pointed to all the results the search engine gave us back.

And what does each of these results look like?

You guessed it, they all look like text hyperlinks, pretty neat eh. You can click on each one of these links and you will be transported to a different web site.

The web site you land at should have the information you are looking for.

In summing up

In this article we found out that to move from A to B around the Internet, we click on hyperlinks.

A hyperlink is usually blue and underlined, but not always. A hyperlink may also be represented by a picture or image.

We also found out that if we want to find a web page containing information we want, but don't know how to find that web page, we can use a search engine.

I hope you have found this information useful. Now you know that hyperlinks take you to different locations and web pages and that search engines can give you answers (or web sites that may contain answers) to your questions, you should be ale to surf the Internet without a worry.

Now you know this, get out there and start clicking.

Article © Matt Western - deTechnify.com

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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