Browsing
Web browsing, or ‘surfing the net’ as it is often known colloquially, is the process of viewing web pages and moving from one ‘page’ of information to another by means of a (hyper)link. You view websites using web browsers, popular examples include: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape and Safari.
Watch this Video to learn how to customise your web browser
What is a website?
A Website or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of Web pages. The pages of a Web site will be accessed from the homepage.
Types of Web sites
There are numerous types of Web sites, each specialising in a particular service or use. A few types of Web sites include:
- Archive site: used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with extinction
- Business site: used for promoting a business or service
- Commerce site or eCommerce site: for purchasing goods, such as Amazon.com
- Community site: a site where persons with similar interests communicate with each other
- Directory site: a site that contains varied contents which are divided into categories
- News site: similar to an information site, but dedicated to dispensing news and commentary
- Search engine site: a site that provides a gateway or lookup for other sites
- Weblog (or blog) site: site used to log online readings or to post online diaries
- Web portal site: a web site that provides a starting point, a gateway, or portal, to other resources.
Favourites
You can “save your place” when you look at a website that you like. It is like saving your place in a book by turning the page corner or using a bookmark! If Internet Explorer is your browser, go to a page you like, look for the word Favourites at the very top of your screen and left-click on it. To add that page, just click on “Add to Favourites” and Internet Explorer stores it for you. To go to the page in future you just have to click again on the favourites menu, and choose your page from the list of all the favourites you have.
There are also numerous online services which allow you to store links to your favourite websites. Some even offer “social bookmarking” where you can share your favourite sites with others and discover sites chosen by others with similar interests. For example: http://del.icio.us/
This service allows you to register and store your bookmarks online, add tags to classify your links, share them with others and discover similar site links.
Search Engines
How Do Search Engines Work?
A search engine is a program designed to help find information stored on a computer system such as the World Wide Web, or a personal computer. The search engine allows one to ask for content meeting specific criteria and retrieves a list of references that match those criteria. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently.
Watch this video about using a search engine to build up your surfing skills.
Here are some examples of search engines:
Web page accuracy
It is important to remember that you can not believe everything that you read on web pages online. Not all web pages will be accurate or have the correct information all the time. For example, if you think about a newspaper story on a breaking report, the person publishing the web page may not have all, the most up to date or accurate source of information at the time of writing. In addition some information on the web may be “biased”, or deliberately misleading to persuade you to agree with the writers point of view. Ways in which people sometimes do this are to present so called “facts” or sources of information which support what the writer is saying and leaving out reports or evidence which do not agree with the writers point of view. Sometimes web page publishers may not tell the truth or lie on purpose. This can be for different reasons, for example;- to get more people to read their pages; to make money; or even to cause trouble.
How can I check if a web page is accurate?
- Look for web pages which you know are published by organisations which have a good reputation offline as well as online for providing correct information.
- Cross check for information – Search the web for to see if there if there are any other sources of information to support what you have read.
- Be aware of any biases the author of the web page – ask yourself if there are any reasons why they may want to publish something in a particular way or if they have anything to gain from this
