Internet Browsing
&
Surfing
The Internet
What is the Internet?
Before we Know about internet we must
know that what is the Network.
A computer Network is a connection of
two or more computers to share data &
resources.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is the largest electronic
network. A global network of networks.
The Internet also referred to as the Net,
Information Superhighway, or Cyberspace.
Why Internet?
To find information (Browsing &
Searching)
To send and receive e-mail (yahoo,
hotmail, gmail)
To communicate with other people
(instant messaging i.e. Chat)
Why Internet?
To distance learning (online lectures)
To market product & services (web-
hosting & advertisements)
To shop (e-shoping)
History of the Internet?
The Internet as we know it today begins around
1969 with ARPANet, a network created by the
Department of Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency. Originally connecting four
universities, the network allows scientists across
the country to share information and resources
through their computers, which are about the
size of a refrigerator. Through the 70’s and 80’s
more universities connect their computers to
ARPANet.
History of the Internet?
In 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF)
establishes 6 super computing sites in the U.S,
which create the NSFNET backbone.
ARPANet dissolves in 1990, but the NSFNET
backbone continues to grow in size and speed,
becoming network of networks, known today as
the Internet.
In 1993, the World Wide Web (www) was born.
The world-wide-web revolutionized the way
people accessed information on the Internet.
History of the Internet?
Using hypertext markup language (HTML),
people could link documents together, even
documents on different computers, so long as
the computers were connected to the Internet.
Additionally, the documents were not required
to be text-based files, but could also be image,
sound, or video files. When information (text,
image, sound, video, or a combination of these)
is combined into a single document, we call it a
web page. Web pages require the use of web
browser software that interprets the page’s
HTML and displays the information on the
screen.
How to Get Connected
to the Internet?
The basic requirements are:-
A Computer
A Modem
A Phone Line
A Contract With ISP
How to Open Internet
Pages (Websites)?
A software called Internet Browser is
required to open websites. Here is a list of
commonly used Internet Browsers :-
Internet Mozilla Chrome Netscape
Explorer Firefox Navigator
Safari Opera
Http://www.sti.gov.pk ?
pk (Represents the Country)
gov (Government Organization
sti (Domain Name/Name of Organization)
www (World Wide Web)
Http (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
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Internet Explorer
How to Search the
Internet ?
To search Internet a search engine is required.
Here are some commonly used search engines:-
Google.com
Yahoo.com
Ask.com
Altavista.com
Bing.com
Info.com
Internet/web Search
Techniques
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Internet Search Techniques
Finding information on the Internet that is relevant,
useful, current and credible can be challenging.
Information on the Internet is:
Decentralized - thousands of networks are involved
Disorganized - no central index or database exists
Dynamic - changing every minute of every day
Expanding rapidly
Not subject to traditional pre-publication checks and balances
Not always authentic or accurate
Not always predictable - resources can disappear or change
suddenly
Search Engine
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Effective searching can allow us
to
Find the materials we want amongst the huge
number of online resources available
Google claims it searches >3 billion web pages
More than 20,000 full text journals are online
Newspapers, databases, books, company web
pages, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, individual
home pages, etc, are also online
Make efficient use of limited access to PCs
and bandwidth
Save time and money
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Planning a search strategy
Define your information need
Decide which sources to use
Find out how they function
Run your search
Review and refine you search
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Remember
Never use phrases if you are looking for
some topic or subject
Use complete phrases only when you are
looking for the exact phrase
Break your concept in key concepts or
terms
Before starting searching think (WWH)
what, where and How
It will save your time and bandwidth
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Define your information need
Careful choice of search term(s) is vital
What key words do you think will appear on the
site/article you want?
What are key concepts: Is it a part of or related
to ?
Are there any synonyms for these keywords or
concepts?
Are there any alternative spellings for your
keywords/concepts
Are plurals or capitalisation involved?
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I want to find information about the
health implications of water pollution
Keywords: ’water’ ‘pollution’ ‘health’
Concepts: ‘environmental degradation’ or ‘agricultural
management’ or ‘health’
Synonyms:
rivers, lakes, sea, coastal, ’domestic water’, etc
‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, etc
Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)
Capitals: maybe the name of a specific lake, disease,
region
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Tips for Searching the Web
Be Natural
Type in what you want to know, rather than a list of
synonyms. Websites are written in flowing language, and search
engines are being taught to understand the same.
Use Rare Words
The more unusual or uncommon the keywords you use are,
the more specific the results will be. Taking a moment to think of a
valid yet uncommon word is a valuable technique.
Note: For few engines the word order is important, so always enter
the rare word first.
Most Important Word First
From experiences with Google, it has been found that putting
the word that is most important to your search in first, gets slightly
better results.
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Tips for Searching the Web
Spell It Right
Reverse Questions
Search engines look for pieces of text that match
your query. Web pages are more likely to contain
answers than questions - so search for the answer.
Phrase your query how you would expect the answer to
read - the difference appears slight, but it makes a huge
difference.
For Example:
“IRS stands for" rather than "What does IRS stand for?“
"man first landed on the moon in" rather than "When did
man first land on the moon?“
"sky is blue because" instead of "Why is the sky blue?"
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Internet Search Techniques
Searching by Keyword
1. The user enters keywords in a query box and requests a
search.
2. The search tool attempts to match the keywords with entries in
its database then returns a "hit list" of sites related to the
keywords. The sites in the hit list are usually ranked by
relevance with the best matches at the top of the list. The
information for each site includes a link to the particular
internet resource and in many cases a brief abstract of the site.
3. The user selects appropriate sites from the hit list and reviews
the pages to find the information required. The keyword
searching method is often used for narrow, specific searches.
Internet Search Techniques
Searching by Keyword
Example: Harry Potter Search
Hit List
Site 1 - link and description
Site 2 - link and description
Site 3 - link and description
etc.
How Search Engines Work
Electronic search engines may interpret your
search terms using
Boolean operators
Phrase and proximity searching
Truncation or wildcard functions
Case sensitivity
Fields
Stop words
Relevance sorting
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Boolean Operators
Use Boolean Phrases
Perhaps the most useful feature in defining search criteria,
Boolean operators provide you with powerful control over search
engine logic
AND
If you want a document that contains all of your keywords, use the
capitalized word AND between keywords. The engine will only find
documents that have both words.
OR
If you want to broaden your search to find documents that contain either
of the keywords, use the OR operator between words. This is very useful
when searching for terms that have synonyms.
For Example: children OR kids, which would return any document that
had either of the words.
NOT or AND NOT
Using the capitalized AND NOT preceding a search term eliminates
documents that contain that term
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education literacy
Query: I'm interested in the
relationship between education
and literacy
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education literacy
Query: I would like information
about education or literacy
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education secondary
Query: I want to see information about
education, but I want to avoid seeing
anything about secondary
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Internet Search Techniques
AND Operator
Include resources that contain all keywords
Used to narrow or tighten a search
Example:
music AND "George Harrison"
OR Operator
Include resources that contain either or both keywords
Used to broaden a search
Example:
"John Lennon" OR "George Harrison"
Internet Search Techniques
Searching by Boolean Search Operators
NOT Operator
Exclude resources that contain the keyword
Used to narrow a search
Example:
Beatles NOT "Ringo Starr"
Phrase and proximity searching
Using quotation marks allows you to
search for an exact phrase, e.g.
“information literacy”
NEAR ensures that the document
contains both terms and that they are
located near each other in the
document.
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Truncation or wildcard searches
Truncation: place a symbol at the end
of the word so you search for variant
endings of that word
e.g. litera$ would look for literature,
literacy, literal
Wildcards: place a symbol within a word
to find variations on it
e.g. analy*e would find analyse or analyze
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Other variations in search tools
Case sensitivity: use of upper or lower case
in search terms
Fields: searches in fields such as the title,
URL or links
Stop words: searches may ignore common
words such as ‘and’, ‘if’, ‘an’, ‘the’
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Parentheses
Parentheses are used in Boolean logic similar to
the way they are used in a mathematical
equation, limiting and ordering relations between
variables.
For Example:
If you want to find a Web-based Internet
tutorial you might use the search criteria
Internet AND (tutorial OR lesson).
The documents returned must contain both of the
words Internet and tutorial or Internet and
lesson.
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Parentheses
flower AND(rose OR Jasmine)
music AND Beatles NOT ("John Lennon" OR "Ringo Starr")
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Text Operators in the
Search
Include Type (+) before the term to include in results.
Plus sign is usually not used because it is understood
Exclude Type (-) before the term to exclude from
results
Synonym Type (~) before the term to find the word
and synonyms
e.g. large~big to return results including large, big, great and
huge
Num-range Use the format [#]…[#] to specify values
to include in your search results
e.g. Laptops PKR15,000…50,000 to find results where laptops
ranging in price from PKR15,000…50,000 are included in the
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Internet Search Techniques
Searching by Search Operators
Examples:
"Robin Hood" hit list includes sites containing the
exact phrase "Robin Hood"
"Robin Hood" -movie hit list includes sites containing the
exact phrase "Robin Hood" and excludes sites
containing the word "flour" (to exclude sites about the
Robin Hood Flour Company)
Text Operators in the Search
filetype: PDF
title: Keywords
url: keywords
info: www.newyork.com
Returns listing the site and offers options for more information
link: www.nasa.gov
Returns pages that link to the NASA site—about
155,000 pages
site: www.sti.gov.pk
Returns results from the specified website
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Internet Search Techniques
Field Search Operators
TITLE Operator
Locates resources where the keyword occurs in the title of the web page
Example: title:football
URL Operator
Locates resources where the keyword occurs in the url of the web page
Example: url:news
LINK Operator
Locates resources where the keyword occurs in hyper-text links on the
web page
Example: link:alquran
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