Home

Computer Instruction

Web Reference

Pathfinders/Bibliographies

Buying A New Computer

Course Summary
Key Terms and Concepts
Resources

Introduction to the Internet

Course Summary

In this basic course, we will define what the Internet is, how we connect to it, and how we navigate it to find information. This is a basic course and therefore emphasis is placed on introductory concepts, and not advanced searching and features associated with using the Internet. Future courses will address such topics. Look for links to such courses on this website coming soon.

Key Terms and Concepts

What is the Internet

The Internet, or World Wide Web, is essentially an electronic network between computers around the world. How we have come to know it today is the place where we can access information from around the world on our computer from what are called 'web pages'. These webpages are created by people from everywhere that contain some type of information about something. The unique feature of the information on the Internet is that is all connected through electronic links. These 'links' are located on web pages and take us from one page to the other with the click of the left mouse button. It is this interconnected nature between webpages that is the reason is is referred to as a World Wide Web.

How Do We Connect to the Internet

To connect to the Internet requires two things

A computer (with a modem of some type)
A subscription with an Internet service provider (ISP) - examples are AOL, NetZero, MSN and many cable companies as well

The first is pretty basic, however we should define what a modem is. A modem is a hardware device that transfers signals from your computer to somewhere else. To connect to the Internet, the modem takes information from your computer and transmits this to an Internet Service Provider through a physical wire in your computer. This wire is either a telephone line or a cable line. It is this Internet Service Provider that connects your computer to the content of the Internet. Think of the ISP as a sort of bridge between you and the Internet. The one exception to this relationship is when you are able to establish a wireless connection.

Wireless Connections (also called WIFI)

This is a special type of Internet connection where the computer does not need to use a wire or an ISP. Many computers now have a modem that can detect internet signals produced by transmitters creating signals in the air and thus can connect. Places such as libraries and bookstores many times offer these wireless signals to customers and patrons at no cost such that someone can bring a smaller computer or laptop to the place and connect to Internet. However, many times these wireless signals are offered at a fee. See the WIFI link below for more information about this connection type.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

This is basically the address for any given website. Just as people have addresses where they live which include a street, house or apt number, state, etc, so do websites. There are four basic parts to a web address or URL. And there are two ways to access them.

Parts of a URL

1. http:// - this refers to hyper transfer text protocal and is standard for all websites. It is so standard in fact that for most browsers now you do not even have to type it in when entering a URL.

2. www - this refers to the World Wide Web and is basically a declaration that the website is on the World Wide Web. Most websites have this as part of their URL. Some do not, but majority still rules in this case.

3. Site name - this is the actual name of the site, and usually is a type of acronym or meaningful word representative of the individual, groups or product represented by the site (For example, the site name for the New York Public Library is 'nypl')

4. Domain name - this is the suffix for the website and is usually representative of the type of organization that is hosting or helping the site to exist. Some common domain names are:

.com = commercial website

.edu = education website

.org = organization website (usually for non profit organizations)

.gov = governement website

Example of an entire URL: http://www.nypl.org

As mentioned before, there are two ways to access a URL:

Type a URL that you know into the address bar of your browser and click the button 'Go'
Click on a link, which will bring you to a given URL

Web Browsers

Web browsers are what we use to view the content of the Internet. Most computers today come standard with the web browser called Internet Explorer (it is represented as a lower case 'e' icon on your desktop). There are however other web browsers available such as Mozilla Firefox. Needless to say, the web browser is the application or program that is used to view and navigate through web pages. You can open your browser by double-clicking its icon on your desktop.

When you open your browser you will notice two levels of menu features at your disposal. The ones all the way at the top are drop-down menus (ex. 'File', 'Edit', 'Favorites', etc) where specific functions can be performed that can enhance, utilize or change the settings of the browser.

The second level of menu features are represented right below the first set of menu features and include buttons such as 'Back', 'Forward', 'Stop', etc. These are your web navigation buttons and they specifically control how you view and navigate the Internet. For instance, if you are looking at a webpage and then click a link to go to another webpage and would like to go one page back, you could click the back button. Likewise, if you would like to go to forward one page, you could click the forward button. Here are some details regarding the web navigation buttons:

Back : To move go to the previous web page you had been viewing
Forward: To move to forward one page (this is only available once you have viewed at least two pages).
Stop: This button can be utilized to stop a webpage from loading. This is popular if you dont feel like waiting for a page to load thats taking too long.
Refresh: This button reloads a webpage, which is popular when pages do not load properly
Home: This button returns you to your homepage, or the default page that appears when you first open your browser. (NOTE: Your homepage can be changed to whatever you would like, see links and tutorials below for how to perform this function)
Search: This button allows you to perform a web search utilizing your web browser. This button is not very popular, as most people prefer to use other search engines on the Internet (see below for a list of search engines)
Favorites: Selecting this button provides access to your list of favorite websites that you have designated, or that came preprogrammed with yor browser. You can add, delete, and edit these favorites. See links and tutorials below for how to perform these functions
Media: This allows to search for audio and video content. The same applies here as with the Search button in regards to popularity and why.
History: This button allows you access to a list of sites you have visited in case you go 'browse crazy' and cannot remember how to get back to a specific page. It is useful for navigating back to a site in the middle of browsing when you cannot remember the URL.

Search Engines

So there is all this information on the web, we have our web browser ready to go...how do we find what we are looking for?? That is where the search engine comes in. By using a search engine, which itself is merely a webpage that searches the web, we can reach out into the vastness of the Internet and retrieve pages that have information about what we want to search for. All you have to do is type your search term(s) into the white search box and click 'search' or 'go'.

However, just like buying a toaster or a computer, there are many different models with different functions and different uses. There are many different search engines that one can use to search the Internet. There are general search engines, such as Google or Ask, that search the web based on a text or keyword search and return a list of relevant links to webpages. The thing about search engines though it that they all work a little differently so that searching for 'computers' on Google and on Ask will not produce a completely identical list. You have to try these engines out and see which ones work best for you.

There are also metasearch engines which can search several search engines at the same time. This can be really useful for having multiple lists of webpage links to work with and not have to go to each one seperately to get the best results

There are also visual search engines, which are a relatively new phenomena. These search engines actually retrieve results for you, but instead of giving a list of webpage links, it organizes your results in a more visual way (such as with 'clouds' or diagrams).

There are also other types of search engines, such as subject specific search engines and 'deep' web search engines, but these will be discussed and considered at a future time when I create a more advanced Internet component to the website (COMING SOON)

Needless to say, the best way to get comfortable with searching the Internet, and deciding which search engines work best for you is by practicing on them. Below are a list of different types of search engines available on the Internet. Explore and play with them and see what works for you.

Here are some useful search tips before you get started:

If you want to search for multiple topics or keywords use the word 'AND' to seperate them
The more keywords, and more specific keywords you use, the more precise your search will be
Many search engines are good at searching by typing in a sentence representing your search, such as Google, try and see what kinds of results you get (ex. How do I buy a computer)
Many search engines not only retrieve a list of websites for you when it does its search, but many times you will see other links on the page called 'Sponsored Links'. These are links that are placed there because a company payed the search engine to retrieve them anytime a person searched for a particular word. These are generally not very useful to you since they are mostly designed to attempt to sell you something.

With that said, try some of these search engines!

1. General Search Engines

http://www.google.com

2. Metasearch Engines

These are search engines that can search several search engines at the same time:

http://www.zuula.com

http://www.clusty.com

http://www.dogpile.com

http://www.excite.com/

http://www.metacrawler.com/

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html

This link provides information and evaluation of many popular metasearch engines

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156241

This link is a webliography, or list of metasearch engines with a description of each including what engines they search and their strengths

3. Visual Search Engines

These are newer types of search engines that provide their results in a visual format. A bit difficult to get used to, but a glimpse of the future of search engines.

http://www.kartoo.com

http://www.quintura.com/

http://www.mooter.com/moot

Resources

Links

Introduction to the Internet (From the National Library of Australia) - Click this lnk for a really nicely organized overview and history of the Internet, as well as how it functions, ways of accessing the Internet, and some tools available for use on the Internet

Internet Search Tips (From UC Berkeley)

Internet Search Strategies (From UC Berkeley)

Click this links for a page within information and links about what to know before you start searching the Internet, including how to evaluate and use search engines and directories.

Calgary Public Library: Introduction to the Internet

This is a great link of an online tutorial created by the Calgary Public Library designed for people who have never used the Internet before. Just scroll to the bottom of the page when you get there and click the PLAY button on control console at the bottom of the page. (Hint: If you take you mouse pointer and hover each button icon, you can find out the function of each button and thereby find the play button. It is located in the middle)

BBC WebWise - Introduction to the Internet

This page provides a lively and fun interactive tutorial for performing several different functions on the Internet

including searching for information, filling out forms, using email, and even how to connect to the Internet. Just click on the number corresponding to the topic your interested in and do the tutorial. There are even fun little games and quiz activities to get you using and practicing your 'net skills'. NOTE: The number 4 tutorial requires a fee, however all other tutorials on this page are completely free!

This page provides three seperate links to information about how to perform these various functions. Easy to understand instructions for the beginning user. Just click and topic and your off!

WIFI (From How Stuff Works) - This link provides more in-depth explanation and information about exactly how wireless Internet connections work.

Free WIFI spots in NYC - This link brings you to a page giving the address and locations of various places in Manhatten that provide free wireless Internet access. The places are listed in alphabetical order. You can get to the next list of places by scrolling down a little, then clicking the NEXT link to get to the next page of places.

Files

Intro to the Internet.doc - Click on this link for an outline of the my Introduction to the Internet class conducted at the Richmondtown Library

Search_Engines.doc - Click this link to get a list of search engines that you can explore and play/practice with to get familiar with the types of search engines that are available (They are also available above in the search engine section of this webpage)

Internet Searching.doc - This is a newer (2008) list of search engines of various types including directories, metasearch engines, visual search engines, and just some interesting and "cool" search pages you can use.