Sub sections:
5. Using the web
Introduction to the World Wide Web
This page will deal with the following topics:
- the nature of the World Wide Web;
- the sorts of information available on the Web;
- Web addresses or URLs; and
- Connecting to the Web.
What is the Web?
The World Wide Web, usually just called the "Web", is the most user-friendly part of the Internet, the immense network that links thousands of smaller computer networks across the globe.
The Web is a worldwide library of over ten billion electronic documents. Each of these documents is written using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). People view these documents using special programs known as Web browsers.
Each HTML document is connected to others on the Web by a system of links. By clicking on a link inside your browser window, you can leap from one document or collection of documents ("site") to another in seconds. Most links consist of underlined text. However, it is also possible to make all or part of an graphic image serve as a link. Links can also be inserted into animations or digital movies.
What's on the Web
The range of subjects covered by the Web is enormous. These include law, economics, medicine, applied and pure science, history, geography, sociology and the fine arts. The material on the Web is not limited to text. Web pages can include photographs, maps, audio or video files, even electronic documents and bibliographies that you can download to your own computer.
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Web search engines
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Web Addresses
Every Web page has its own address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Most Web addresses have three parts:
- The protocol (usually http://)
- The host or domain name (eg www.une.edu.au)
- The path (eg /library/index.htm).
The protocol says that the address in question is an HTML file. The next part indicates the computer on which the Web page is stored. The final part of the Web address points towards the actual HTML file, giving the exact path that the browser needs to take to load this file (eg the directory or folder in which the file is stored and the name of the file itself).
Being able to understand the meaning of Web addresses is important when evaluating the information on a Web page. The host or domain name will often indicate the source of the document. This is because particular codes are assigned to different domain owners:
- ac (academic)
- com (commercial organisation)
- co (commercial organisation UK/NZ)
- edu (educational institution)
- gov (government body)
- org (non-profit organisation).
Examples of domain names which include these codes are:
- www.classics.ox.ac.uk (Classics at Oxford University)
- www.une.edu.au (UNE)
- www.uws.edu.au (University of Western Sydney)
- www.microsoft.com (Microsoft)
- www.abs.gov.au (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
- www.worldbank.org (World Bank).
It also useful to note that domain names can also indicate the country of origin. Most countries have their own country code, even if these codes are not always used. Country codes include:
- au (Australia)
- ca (Canada)
- fr (France)
- uk (United Kingdom)
- jp (Japan).
If a Web address doesn't include a country code, it's likely that the domain is a US one. That's why there is no country code in the domain names for the home sites of US companies such as IBM and Microsoft. On the other hand, Australian sites owned by these companies have Australian domain names (such as www.microsoft.com.au).
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Searching for file types You may search for particular filetypes such as pdf, rtf or excel documents. This can be useful when searching for journal articles or documents on the web.
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Connecting to the Web
Away from home
There are many different ways to access the Web. At UNE, on-campus computer labs are available for Web browsing on the First Floor of the IT Building and the Ground Floor of the UNE University Library. Most buildings on the UNE campus (including the residential colleges) have a connection to the Web.
Many external students can also surf the Web at their local library (many public libraries now have Internet connections) or at an Internet cafe (a shopfront location that sells time at a computer with Internet access). If you work in an office with Internet access, you can probably search the Web from your computer, although its probably a good idea to ask your supervisor for permission and to confine your searches to the hours outside your normal working day.
From home
Students and staff with computers at home can also connect to the Web. However to do so, most will need both a modem (a device for hooking a computer up to their telephone line) and an account with an ISP (Internet Service Provider). ISPs are the people who provide the connection from the telephone system to the Internet.
If you want further advice, email the IT Service Desk should be addressed to servicedesk@une.edu.au. Their telephone number is 02 6773 5000.
A word of warning
Be wary of providers who promise low-price or free Internet access. There are often hidden costs in terms of telephone charges and service fees for technical advice. Some students find these services adequately meet their needs: others can tell you horror stories of poor service and cost blow-outs.
Web browsers
The most popular Web browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. If you have purchased a new Windows personal computer recently, it’s likely that your machine came with Internet Explorer already installed.
Using your browser
Getting started
After you have launched the browser by double-clicking on the browser icon on your desktop, you are presented with a window. At the top of this window is a menu bar with a number of pull-down menus. Below this menu bar is a row of buttons and below the buttons is a box that displays the Web address of the current Web page. The rest of the window consists of the current Web page.
To go to a particular Web address:
- Enter the Web address in the Address box
- Press the Enter key.
Once you're at the Web address, you can use your browser and your mouse to move around. Most of the time you can simply move from one link to another by clicking on the link with your mouse. At other times, you will find it useful to use the buttons at the top of the screen (Figs 1-2). The basic buttons are:
- Back: takes you back to the last page visited
- Forward: takes you forward one page
- Home: takes you to your browser's default home page
- Stop: stops your browser from loading a new page (useful if you have clicked on a link and it's taking a long time to find the page you have requested)
- Refresh (reloads the current page)
- Print: prints the current Web page.
Fig 1 Basic buttons for Internet Explorer
Note: this figure indicate only the very basic buttons. There are additional buttons with specialised functions and the arrangement of the buttons can vary.
Summary
This page provided you with an introduction to the Web. Specifically, it dealt with:
- the concept of links;
- the meaning of a URL or Web address;
- how to connect to the Web;
- Web browsers; and
- basic browser skills.
Now let's look into the task of actually locating information on the Web.
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Self-test
Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |
