SURFING THE WWW
If you are reading this, you know something about "surfing" the WWW. This section will tell you more (and point you to even more stuff than you probably ever wanted to know) about [] web browsers [], [] HTML [], [] URLs [], and [] bookmarking []. The next section discusses searching the Web. Take what you need and leave the rest.
Web browsers are programs that allow you to look at various kinds of WWW resources. There are two different kinds of browsers on the Web:
TEXT-BASED BROWSERS, such as Lynx or Charlotte, provide access to the only textual elements of Web documents, usually indicating hypertext links with highlighted or numbered text. Interaction is through the keyboard via the arrow, tab and/or enter keys, and the use of command strings -- you select items by using the cursor or tab key, or by entering the number of the item; you enter commands or use command keys to initiate searches, jump to specific documents, page up or down in the document, back up to the previous page displayed, etc.
GUI (GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE) BROWSERS let you see and interact with graphical web pages that have made the WWW so popular. They use a “point and click” interface to show formatted text, display iimages and animations, play video and audio clips. Using a GUI browser, you select items with a mouse click scroll up or down in the document. The GUI interfaces also support pull-down menu options for navigating, hot buttons and images as well as hot text and multiple windows. The most well-known GUI browsers currently being used are the Netscape Navigator/Communicator, MicroSoft's Internet Explorer, and NCSA's Mosaic.
Mosaic, the father of the GUIs and the program that really launched the WWW, however, is no longer being supported, leaving the Explorer and Netscape to battle for the hearts and minds of users. If you are afraid that you will have to spend the rest of your life working within cognitive structures owned by Bill Gates, Netscape may be your last chance to do otherwise.
GUI browsers come with lots of "bells and whistles." Of course, there's a catch. To run a GUI browser, you have to have a graphical operating system (e.g. Unix, Windows, or Mac), and, you must have a direct network connection to the Internet, or an account on a SLIP or PPP provider if you're connecting via modem.
Different graphical browsers and various pages also require different helper applications and/or plugins applications.
Helpers are applications that run in the background of your browser and perform particular tasks. A telnet client, for example, is required to be running in the background in Netscape in order for you to be able to make telnet connections.
Plugins are tools that work in tandem with your browser to provide some special features, a calendar or chat, for example, or video and sound. Plugins can usually be downloaded from web pages that need them.
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, the coding language used to create WWW documents; it's what makes whatever browser you use work. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, in that is essentially text surrounded by codes telling the computer how it should appear.
What is really cool about HTML is that it is platform-independent. That means any computer that can run a browser can “read” HTML, and that a page written in HTML will appear the same on computers running differing operating systems.
HTML supports the creation of many features, including headings, highlighting, links to other pages, etc. The HTML behind Web pages allows them to support such features as in-line graphics (pictures embedded in the text as they might be in a desktop publishing article), in-line forms (for database searching, surveys, user-feedback, ordering information, etc.), "hot" maps (where you can click on highlighted portions of a map or graphic to go to that spot -- as you might do in a computer game), links to other documents, and other headings in the current document, etc.
URL stands for Uniform or Universal Resource Locator. URLs are used to uniquely identify resources on the Internet. They support links to virtually every Internet protocol (e.g., gopher, wais, telnet, ftp, http, usenet news, mail, etc.).
URLs essentially are standardized directions to information accessible via the WWW. They make the Web possible by making hyperlinks between documents possible. URLs are case-sensitive to the extreme, and like other Internet addresses, every character counts (miss one capital letter, or a dot or a slash) and you won't connect.
Each URL describes a particular path to a specific Internet resource and consists of three parts:
The first part of a URL, the part before the colon, tells what file protocol the server is using to transfer information to you. For example, "http" (hypertext transfer protocol) tells you that the file is being served from an http, or web, server. You will also see URLs that begin with "gopher", "telnet", "ftp", etc. which provide links to resources on these types of servers.
The second part of the URL, the part that follows the two forward slashes (://) tells you the Internet address of the server where the resource is located. For example, the World Wide Web server at the university at Albany is www.albany.edu -- Notice that this part of the address is similar to the last part of an email address -- the "edu" is the educational network, "albany" is the institution, and "www" is our World Wide Web server.
The remainder of the URL (following the first "/") describes the directory path to the particular resource and ultimately the name of the file. For, example, the directory for my lab at the University is ltl (which stands for Learning Technologies Laboratory) so the entire address is http://www.albany.edu/ltl. Many URLs are much longer simply because the directory path to them is very long. What about the times when you don't have a URL in hand and you don't have any idea how to get to where you want to go on the WWW? Well, that's when you use search engines and indices (NET SEARCH in Netscape).
No matter what browser you use, chances are it has a bookmark function available. Bookmarks allow you to save the URLs for sites that you use frequently or that you want to return to later (don't think you will find it easily again, although we all make that mistake). In Netscape, for example, bookmarks are accessed through a pull-down menu that gives you the options of adding or removing bookmarks from the lists it also displays. Simply clicking on Add Bookmark when you are at a site whose URL you want to save will add that site to the list. Clicking on a site name on the list will take you there.
Another way to save a list of sites is to keep a word processor open while you are surfing and to copy and paste the URLs (and notes if you wish) into them. This is a good idea when you are not working on your own computer.
