Chapter 8 Browsing and Searching the Web

Browsing and Searching the Web FAQs: – What’s a Web page? – What’s a URL? – How does a browser work? – How do I use a search engine? – Can I save text and graphics that I find on the Web? – How do I create my own Web pages? – How do I access Web apps? 2Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

What’s a Web page? A Web page is the product or output of one or more Web- based files which are displayed on your computer – Millions of Web pages are available on the Internet – Clickable hypertext links allow you to move between Web pages Computers that store Web pages are known as Web servers – Each Web server hosts one or more Web sites – Web sites contain information about a specific topic 3Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

What’s a Web page? The main page of a Web site is the home page – Any page on a Web site can be linked to the home page or to other Web pages – Text links usually appear as blue or green underlined words – Graphics links appear as pictures – When you point to a link the pointer changes to a hand- shaped link pointer – By clicking a link you are requesting the Web page indicated by the link – Most Web pages are stored as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) documents 4Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

What’s a Web page? 5Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

What’s a URL? A URL (uniform resource locator) is a Web page address – Most URLs begin with (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) indicating the communication protocol – The Web server’s name begins with www, the name of the company, and the top-level domain, such as.com or.gov – A folder name, file name, and file extension, may follow like this: /contest/rules.htm – Most Web pages have an.htm or.html extension because they are stored in a file format used on the Web called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) 6Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

What’s a URL? 7Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How does a browser work? A Web browser is the software that displays Web pages on your computer screen. The browser: – Interprets HTML tags embedded in the file – Handles links between Web pages Plug-ins are programs that extend the variety of files and media that your browser can display, such as Adobe Flash Player Your browser can interact with a Web server to create a cookie, which is a message that contains information to help the Web server identify you and perhaps customize the information it presents Your browser can also protect you from pop-up ads 8Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How does a browser work? 9Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I use a search engine? A search engine catalogs Web pages to make it easier to find information – Popular search engines are Google, Bing, and Yahoo! – You enter words and phrases in the Search box and the search engine returns a list of links to pages that match your search criteria Most search engines can handle simple and complex searches – A simple search would be entering in a topic and a few synonyms such as “weight loss diet calories” – A complex search would return a more targeted list by using sophisticated search techniques. Consult your search engine’s online Help for these techniques 10Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I use a search engine? 11Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Can I save text and graphics that I find on the Web? You can print or save articles and graphics – To print a Web page, use your browser’s Print button or the Print option on the File menu – You can also save a copy of the entire Web page, selected paragraphs, or graphics Respect the Author’s intellectual property rights – If you want to use a graphic that you downloaded, you should obtain permission by ing the copyright holder – If you incorporate text into your documents you must include a citation with the author’s information 12Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Can I save text and graphics that I find on the Web? 13Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I create my own Web pages? You can create HTML documents for Web pages using Notepad and hand coding the HTML tags Many applications offer a Save As option that produces an HTML document from a standard document, spreadsheet, presentation, or other text-based file Another option for creating Web pages is a special category of software, referred to as Web authoring software or HTML editor Web page authors can use a set of online Web page authoring tools 14Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I create my own Web pages? 15Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I access Web apps? A Web app is software that is accessed with a Web browser – Program code runs on a remote computer that is connected to the Internet – Sometimes referred to as cloud computing – Available for many of the same applications that run locally – Can be accessed from any computer with a Web connection – Some are free, and others require a fee – Google Docs is one of the most popular Web apps 16Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

How do I access Web apps? 17Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Hardware: Mobile Internet access devices Mobile Internet access offers a continuous Internet connection while you are mobile – Available for mobile phones, PDAs, and portable computers A mobile phone that can connect to the Internet is sometimes referred to as a smartphone A PDA is a handheld device that includes a fairly sophisticated personal organizer 18Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Hardware: Mobile Internet access devices A broadband PC card that plugs into a notebook computer and establishes a connection with a mobile phone service provider Mobile devices are controlled by an operating system – Palm WebOS – Symbian OS – Windows Mobile OS – iPhone OS – Android OS 19Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Hardware: Mobile Internet access devices 20Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Hardware: Mobile Internet access devices A microbrowser is a specially designed Web browser optimized to display Web pages on small screens A WAP browser provides access to special Web sites designed to fit completely in limited screen real estate – Primarily text-based An HTML microbrowser displays standard HTML documents 21Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

Hardware: Mobile Internet access devices 22Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8

The filtering controversy What do you think? – If you had children, would you use filtering software on your home PC to block access to certain Web sites? – Do you think schools and public libraries that provide Internet access to children should use filtering software? – Should a government prevent its citizens from accessing Web-based material that does not conform with its political and cultural agenda? 23Practical PC 6th Edition Chapter 8