Using the World Wide Web Access to “Everything”
Jan 21, 2016
Using the World Wide WebAccess to “Everything”
The World Wide Web is a collection of millions of computers around the world
These computers make information of all kinds available to anyone that wants it
What is the Web?
Most of the information is free, though there are some websites that you must pay to use
Other websites offer goods and services for sale
The free information is growing explosively
What is the Web?
General InformationHobby InformationTravel InformationServicesBad Guys!!!
What kinds of things can I find on the Web?
EncyclopediasNewspapers and MagazinesMaps
General Information
Some encyclopedias are the same as their print versions (except a lot lighter!)
Others provide only overview articles
Encyclopedias
“Wikipedias” allow general public to contribute to the content, so should be taken as the “conventional wisdom” rather than final authority.
Because they are electronic, you can use software to make them easier to read
Encyclopedias
Many newspapers and magazines provide their content on-line.
This makes it possible to keep up with local news in your home town, even when you now live across the country.
Newspapers and Magazines
Some magazines offer “enhanced” articles (more content) on-line than in print
Sometimes, the information is available only to subscribers, but in most cases, the content is free
Newspapers and Magazines
MSN Maps allows you to see maps of the entire country in high detail
MSN Maps provides driving instructions from one place to another (similar to AAA)
Maps
When traveling, MSN Maps can also show nearby points of interest
Maps
Local◦Weather service add-ins can show you
current weather conditions, and storm warnings ◦You can get forecasts for the day
(hourly) or the week
Weather
Anyplace Else◦You can ask for the current weather
from any location that the service is available for, delivered to your computer
Weather
Unless you are the only person in the world who pursues a particular hobby, it’s likely that information about it is available on the web
Some of this information is provided by businesses selling supplies for your hobby
Hobby Information
Other sites are created by enthusiasts who share your interests
Discussion groups allow you to share stories or ask for help from others with similar interests
Hobby Information
Salt and Pepper Shaker Collecting
Salt and Pepper Shaker Collecting
Salt and Pepper Shaker Collecting
When traveling, you can plan your trip, make reservations, and even buy your tickets on-line
You can use the on-line maps to locate hotels near your destination
Travel Information
You can often see a typical room, and learn what facilities are available at the hotel
For major hotel chains, you can make reservations, including for specific room features, for the dates of your planned stay
Compare flight schedules and costs, including discount services
Travel Information
Purchase tickets for your desired flight, and select preferred seating
Rent a car at the destination, to be picked up on arrival
Travel Information
Government services◦Social Security ◦Taxes◦Medicare
Services
On-line government services include◦Providing information about services
and responsibilities◦Obtaining forms and assistance◦Making appointments for individual
meetings
Services
Private services◦Medical information – Make
appointments, get reports, etc.◦Pharmacy – Order refills, check
information about prescriptions
Services
◦Home – Locate local contractors, check contractors◦Music and/or movie purchase and
rentals
Services
Not all information on the web is trustworthy, and not all websites are safe
Bad Guys!
Some sites will try to get you to provide personal information that can be used for identity theft◦As a rule, unless you know who you are
communicating with, you should only confirm, never supply personal information on-line
Bad Guys!
Some websites will attempt to place programs on your computer that will use it for criminal activities◦You should have, and maintain,
antivirus and anti-spyware software on your computer
Bad Guys!
In general, the web is neither more nor less dangerous than telephone or mail business◦Be similarly cautious, and you’ll be fine◦Remember, if it sounds to good to be
true, it probably is!
Bad Guys!
Let’s Get Online!
A ComputerA connection to the internet◦This will be provided by a local
“Internet Service Provider”◦Your ISP will probably work either
through your telephone service or your cable television provider
What Do I Need?
Dial-Up◦Your computer uses your telephone line to
connect to the internet◦When on-line, you cannot make or receive
telephone calls◦Available anywhere there is a telephone (but
may be long-distance in some cases)◦Relatively slow (fast enough for email, not fast
enough for watching on-line video)
Types of Internet Connection
“Broadband”◦Can be many times faster than dial-up
connections◦Can be either through your telephone
or cable television provider◦Does not interfere with your telephone◦Always connected
Types of Internet Connection
A “web browser”A web browser is the program that
converts the computer language messages received from the internet into text, pictures, and sounds that you can interpret
What else do I need?
Internet Explorer comes with Windows Vista, and will be used for this training
What else do I need?
Open the Start Menu
Start Your Browser!
At the top of the left side, locate “Internet” ◦Below this, it says
“Internet Explorer” unless you have selected an alternate browser
Start Your Browser!
Move the mouse cursor over the “Internet Explorer” icon
Start Your Browser!
Click the left mouse button once
The browser will start
Start Your Browser!
What am I looking at?
When you first connect to the web, there must be somewhere that you connect to
This is called the “home page”
Your Browser’s Home Page
The home page is one that your browser shows unless you tell it to show you something else
In addition, your browser shows some controls and information
Your Browser’s Home Page
In the upper left of the browser window you will see two circles with arrows
These are the “Back” and “Next” buttons
The Browser Controls
Clicking the “Back” button will return you to the page you came from
If you have just pressed the back button, the “Next” button will take you forward to the place you started
The Browser Controls
Just to the right of the “Next” button you’ll see a long “box” with an odd string of letters
This is the Address Box◦We’ll talk about this more later
The Browser Controls
Just below “Back” and “Next” buttons are a small “star” and a second star with a “+” covering part of it
The star shows a list of “favorites”
The Browser Controls
◦In the beginning, it shows a list of sites that Microsoft’s developers hope will be favorites
The “Plus Star” lets you add new locations to your favorites◦We’ll also discuss this in more detail
The Browser Controls
Just to the right of the “Address Bar” you will see a pair of arrows, one pointing up and one pointing down◦This is the “reload” button
Browser Controls
Next to the “reload” button is a red “X” in a box, called the Stop button◦This forces to browser to stop trying to
get a page that is taking a long time to arrive
Browser Controls
To the right of the Stop Button is a box with a gray label reading “Live Search” on the left, and with a magnifying glass symbol on the right
Browser Controls
This is the “Search” box, and is one of the ways to find what you are looking for on the World Wide Web◦We’ll be discussing “Search” in detail
Browser Controls
Below the Search Box you’ll see a row of small icons◦We’ll discuss three of these in some
detail
Browser Controls
At the left, there is a small “house” icon◦This is the “Home” control
Browser Controls
◦Where ever you are, clicking the Home control will return you to your home page
Browser Controls
In about the middle of the row, there is an icon that, if you have a good imagination, looks something like a printer◦Clicking this button will print the current page
to paper
Browser Controls
Next over is a “Page” button (menu)This is a very important button when
you find a page that is hard to read because it is too small
Browser Controls
If you click the “Page” button, you’ll see a menu
Browser Controls
There are two controls on this menu that are of particular importance to elders◦Zoom◦Text Size
Browser Controls
The Zoom sub-menu will allow you to make the entire page up to four times larger
Browser Controls
This makes the text and the pictures larger
Browser Controls
The “Text Size” menu allows you to make just the text larger, leaving the pictures the same size
Browser Controls
There are four ways to navigate the web, which we’ll try in order◦Web Addresses◦Links◦Favorites◦Search
How do I find things?
Every “page” on the World Wide Web has a unique address, just as every building in a city has its own address
A web address will often look something like: ◦http://www.microsoft.com
Let’s look at this in parts
Web Addresses
This part of the address tells the browser that you are looking at a web page
http://
When you are typing a web address into your browser, you can generally skip this part◦This is like adding “The postal address
is” above the address on an envelope you mail
http://
This is short for “World Wide Web”Again, you can generally skip this
part, because your browser will assume it
If you type www. as part of an address that doesn’t have it, you will not get where you want to go
www.
This part of the address is similar to the city part of a postal address◦Large organizations like Microsoft or
IBM might have thousands of individual addresses within the “city”◦Small groups, like the Salt and Pepper
Shaker collectors might have only a few
Microsoft.
This portion of the address indicates what kind of organization this is◦.com = business or general◦.net = general ◦.gov = government◦.edu = school or other educational
institution
.com
After the main part of an address, you may find a long and complex bunch of letters and symbols◦http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
details.aspx?FamilyID=46f72df1-e46a-4a5f-a791-09f07aaa1914&DisplayLang=en
The “street address”
This tells the computer that is sending you information the exact location of the information you want◦In examples like this one, you should
not even try to type that address!
The “street address”
In some cases, the path makes more sense◦http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/t
In this case, I want to go to the Project Gutenberg site, and browse authors that start with “t”
The “street address”
The World Wide Web is called a “web” because pages can have connections to lots of other pages
The entire web is tied together like a spider’s web
The connections between pages are called “links”
Links
In many cases (unless they are changed deliberately), links look like blue, underlined text
Links
If you click on a link, you will “go” to a new page
Links
Clicking on links on this page can take you to yet another page
Sometimes you find yourself somewhere that you didn’t want to go
In those cases, you can return using the “back” button of the browser
Links
To use the back button, place the point of the mouse cursor over the “left” pointing arrow at the top of the browser window
Links
Click the left mouse button once This will take you “back” to the page
that linked to this oneOf course, once you find an exciting
place, you may not remember how you got there
Fortunately, you don’t have to
Links
Once you locate a page that you’d like to visit again, you can add it to your list of “Favorites”◦These are also called “bookmarks”
Favorites
Putting a page in your “Favorites” is exactly like adding a friend to your address book (except that the computer does all the hard work)
To add an address to your “Favorites,” you first find the page whether by following links or typing in the address
Favorites
While the page is showing, move the mouse pointer over the “Plus-Star” icon in the top left cluster of controls
Click the left button once
Favorites
This should cause a new window to appear asking where the “Favorite” should be stored
Favorites
If the name in the blue area makes sense to you, just click “Add”
Favorites
If you’d prefer this page to have a different name, just type it on the keyboard, then click “Add”
Favorites
Once a page has been added to your favorites, you can return to it at any time
To see your favorites, move the tip of the mouse pointer over the “Star” control
Favorites
Click the left mouse button once◦This will open your
list of favorites
Favorites
Move the tip of the mouse pointer over the name of the page you want to visit
Favorites
Click the left button onceThis will take you directly to the page
you chose
Favorites
But what if you don’t know where the information you want is?
The Power of Search!
The World Wide Web started as a way for a few college professors to share ideas
Searching the Web
In Feb. 2007, there were an estimated 30 billion web pages, in 108 million distinct websites!
No one can keep track of them, or find all of the important information just by looking through them
Searching the Web
But, this is something that computers (great big ones!) are good at
Those big computers are called “search engines”
You can use search engines as much as you want, and they are free!
Searching the Web
Remember that your browser controls included a “Live Search” box?
How Do I Search?
This is your quickest way to use a search engine
How Do I Search?
Move your mouse pointer over the search box and click once◦This tells your computer that when you
type, it should send the text “here”
How Do I Search?
◦You should see a blinking vertical line at the edge of the search box◦So long as the blinking line is in the box,
it doesn’t matter where the mouse cursor goes
How Do I Search?
Type what you are looking for into the search box◦Chocolate cake recipe (25,000,000)◦Deer hunting in Pennsylvania
(2,000,000)◦Musical saw (24,000,000)
How Do I Search?
The “best” sites are usually among the first found
You will also find sites that use most of the words you searched for, but not together
How Do I Search?
One use of the World Wide Web is to shop for things that are not available locally◦Products of small companies that
you’ve moved away from◦Specialty products that have limited
local demand
Shopping on the Web
You can locate and purchase products through “e-tailers” (on-line stores) using your credit card
Your purchases are shipped to you, and generally arrive within a week
Shopping on the Web
You will be sending your credit card number over the internet, which might be overheard
But Is It Safe?
Most reputable dealers have protections in place, through “secure” settings◦(If a dealer doesn’t have a secure
purchase option, they probably are not reputable)
But Is It Safe?
Usually, when entering a secure page, you will see a window announcing the fact◦This window only appears when your
browser starts communicating safely
How Do I Know If Its Secure?
You will remember that web addresses start with the code http://
A secure page will start with https://◦The “s” in that code means that your
computer is talking to the other computer is a special code that can’t be read by anyone else
How Do I Know If It’s Secure?
The World Wide Web is a huge collection of computers around the world that will send you information◦Pictures◦Text (words)◦Movies◦Music
Review/Summary
To access the Web, you need a computer with a connection to the “Internet”
You access the Web through a program on your computer called a “browser”
Review/Summary
You can find information by ◦Knowing its address◦Following a link to it◦Returning to your “favorites”◦Searching with a search engine
Review/Summary
Some web sites will sell you things◦In general, don’t give your credit card
number to a website that doesn’t have a “secure” purchasing system◦These start with “https://”
Review/Summary