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How
do I start
What is
the World Wide Web
That's all
There is to it
What
Can I Find on the Web
How Do I Find What I'm Looking for
I'm Ready
to Give It Try
How
to search on your own
I
want to Learn More about the Web
Internet
Resources Evaluation
History
of World Wide Web
This
tutorial was designed for use on Pasadena Public Library's in-house Internet workstations,
which run Internet Explorer.
HOW DO I START?
This tutorial will have you Web crawling in just a few
minutes. But first, to read through this tutorial, you'll need to move the print upwards
on the screen. This is called "scrolling." To scroll down through the pages, use
the mouse to place the cursor (shaped like a small arrow) over the down arrow icon in the
lower right-hand corner of this screen. Press the left button on the mouse to scroll down.
As the text moves upwards, you will see a small box slide down the right-hand side of the
screen, toward the down arrow icon. To scroll up, place the cursor over the up arrow icon,
above the slider, and press the left button on the mouse. Try it now.
Now scroll down to continue reading the
tutorial.
WHAT IS THE WORLD WIDE WEB?
The World
Wide Web (also known as the Web, WWW, or W3) is a community of information sites on the
Internet computer network. Information found in Web sites may contain many special and
attractive features, such as color graphics, photographs, sounds, or even video clips.
Further, the Web utilizes hypertext to link pieces of related information so you can
travel from one site to another - even around the globe - as you search for information on
a specific topic.
Hypertext is a
powerful tool. Imagine you are researching a topic using a book. You come across an
unfamiliar term. To learn more about that term you would need to consult another book or
perhaps an encyclopedia. Wouldn't it be great if that information could just suddenly
appear? With hypertext that's exactly what happens.
Here's how it
works: Notice that in this sentence the words History of the World Wide Web
are underlined and displayed in color. Using the mouse, move the cursor to that
highlighted phrase. Notice that the arrow becomes a hand with a pointing finger whenever
it is moved over a piece of hypertext. By pressing the left button, or
"clicking" on the hypertext, you will move to another place in this file and
find more information. Try it now.
THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.
You just
learned how to use hypertext. For this demonstration you moved within this document.
However, hypertext links can take you to another document, or even another site. Later in
this tutorial, with a simple click, you can visit CERN itself in Switzerland.
WHAT CAN YOU FIND ON THE
WEB?
Information on the Web is stored in
computers at various sites all over the world. When you visit that site, the first thing
you will see on the screen is the site's "home page." A home page is like the
title page and table of contents of a book. It tells you which site you have accessed and
what information you will find there.
When you visit the City of Pasadena Home Page, for example, you can choose from a
menu, and look at a list of city services, a copy of the latest city agenda, and select a
city department to further visit, and lots more.
Here are a few samples of the
variety of home pages you can find on the Web:
-
Visit the White House, take a tour, and leave a message for the
President.
-
Catch up on what's happening with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
-
Learn
how to dissect a frog.
-
Find the latest news in sports.
-
Ask an Expert
-
Visit an art museum in
Paris.
-
Check out traffic reports
from Southern California.
-
Plan a trip to Disneyland.
As you can see, there's something for everyone on the Web.
Further, each site's home page will often list other interesting and related sites you can
visit. By clicking on the hypertext, you can move from one site to another, just like a
spider crawling around on its web. Later in this tutorial you can visit the sites
mentioned above.
HOW DO I FIND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR
ON THE WEB?
There are new home pages
added to the Web every day. It's a huge body of ever-expanding information. A recent count
estimated that there are millions of documents currently on the Web! Fortunately for us,
there are people and organizations out there who are working at categorizing Web sites
into helpful directories. They are constantly searching for new sites world wide, indexing
them by subject, and creating lists. Even better, these lists utilize hypertext. With a
quick click you can jump from site to site. Later in this tutorial, you can try your own
search in a few directories and search engines.
Just as your home
has an address, each site you visit will have an address. Web addresses are called Uniform
Resource Locators, or "URLs" for short. Here's the address for Pasadena's Home
Page: http://www.cityofpasadena.net
When you visit a
site you like, jot down the address with all the punctuation, exactly as it appears on the
screen, so you can go back another day. The address will appear in the box labeled
"Location," near the top of this screen.
I'M READY TO GIVE IT A TRY!
Before you
take off, here are some navigating instructions you will need:
-
As you browse from site to site, called
"surfing the Web," you'll move forward into documents. But to move back to a
previous document, place the cursor over the "Back" icon, which appears in the
tool bar near the top of the screen, and click. You'll go to the previous document. Keep
clicking and you'll retrace your steps back to your starting point.
-
A quick way to get back to Pasadena's menu of
Internet resources (and start all over) is to click on the "Home" icon, which
also appears in the tool bar above.
Here are some of
the sites we referred to earlier. Just click on the highlighted addresses to visit them.
HOW TO SEARCH THE WEB ON YOUR OWN
You can use
directories to find Web sites that address your particular interest. If you don't find
what you are looking for in one directory, try another. They each have their own strengths
and weaknesses. Just enter a few terms, for example "genealogy Texas," and the
directory will give you a list to choose from. Here are some good ones to try:
-
Internet Search This
list was put together by the Library. It contains major search engines,
metaengines, and subject directories.
-
Yahoo
- This directory began with two students, a couple of yahoos they claim, at Stanford
University. Now it's a commercial venture on the Web. They have lists of categories you
can search, or you can enter key words for a specialized search. Either way, you'll have a
list of Web sites to look at.
To go to a location
once you have an address, you only need to click on the long white box near the top of the
screen. Right now, that box shows the URL for this part of the tutorial:
http://www.cityofpasadena.net/library/tutorial.asp#HOW-TO-SEARCH-THE-WEB-ON-YOUR-OWN
Once you click in the box, that address will be highlighted in blue. Simply
type your new URL in the box and the old one will disappear. Press the "Enter"
key on the keyboard to go to your new site. And you don't have to be looking at this
tutorial: clicking and typing an address in the box will work no matter what site you're
starting with.
I WANT TO LEARN MORE
ABOUT THE WEB
Great! Here are some Web sites that can give
you lots of advanced information about the World Wide Web:
INTERNET RESOURCE EVALUATION
HISTORY OF THE WORLD WIDE
WEB
The World Wide Web was created in Switzerland in
1989 by a British computer specialist, Tim Berners-Lee, at the European Laboratory for
Particle Physics (or CERN). The original Web enabled physics researchers around the world
to exchange research and ideas on the Internet utilizing hypertext. Since then the Web has
grown in a way never envisioned by Berners-Lee. Organizations and individuals all over the
world are using the Web to share information on a huge variety of topics.
Last
update: 12/16/08
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