Understanding the Web

1. Understanding the Web • In 1992, Marc Andreesen and other students at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications developed a browser called Mosaic. • A browser is a program that enables users to navigate the Web and locate and display Web documents. • Mosaic was the first graphical browser that could display graphics as well as text.

2. Understanding the Web cont. • In 1994, Andreesen introduced Netscape Navigator. • A year later Microsoft released Internet Explorer, and that same year the Web was opened up to public and commercial use. • Navigator and Explorer soon became the most popular Web browsers.

3. The Internet and the Web • Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web as synonyms. • In fact, the World Wide Web is just one part of the Internet. • Remember every computer and every document has a unique IP address. Each document also has a unique URL. • Like e-mail, newsgroups, and file transfer, the Web is a service supported by the Internet. • These services all share the Internet and many of its resources, but each is different, with its own set of protocols and applications.

4. Networks and Documents • Any computer in the world can connect to any other computer as long as both are connected to the Internet. • The World Wide Web is a huge collection of documents linked by hypertext. • Hypertext allows readers to click links to get to other documents. • Writers format documents and add the hyperlinks by using Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. • People all over the world create and format Web documents by using standardized HTML codes called tags. • These documents are saved, or “published” to a server on the Internet.

5. Networks and Documents cont. • A markup language is a set of codes that formats the text to have a certain look or be in a certain place on the page. • The tags identify different parts of the document, such as titles, paragraphs, and tables. • Most codes include two tags, a start tag and a close tag, that surround sections of text.

6. Networks and Documents cont. • HTML tags include a standard set of tags that Web designers use consistently to code their work. • A document marked up in HTML starts as an ASCII file, so it will work on any computer platform. • HTML’s ease of use is a major factor in the popularity of the World Wide Web. • Most people can easily learn how to create a basic Web page in HTML.

7. Understanding Hypertext • When documents are accessed by a Web browser, each portion-text, images, sound, or animation—appears with its intended formats. • Hypertext is a way of organizing and linking information. • Hypertext uses hyperlinks, or links, to take you to and from one location to another on the Web. • The new location might be another part of the page you are on, another page on the same Web site, or another Web site.

8. Understanding Hypertext cont. • The most common links are underlined or highlighted words, but graphic images can also be links. • Graphic links aren’t always highlighted, so watch the mouse pointer. • If it changes to a hand icon, it’s positioned over a hyperlink. • A hypermedia system lets you retrieve multimedia resources, such as sounds and videos. • Clicking an icon that resembles videotapes retrieves a video clip.

9. Understanding Web Sites • A Web page is a document on the Web. • A Web site is a collection of related pages. • Moving from one Web page to another is called browsing. • When you type a URL or click a link in your Web browser, it sends a request to the computer on the Internet that contains the page identified by the URL. • That computer is called a Web server. • It stores Web pages and responds to requests from web browsers. • When the server receives your request, it sends the document to your computer, and your browser displays the pages on your screen.

10. Web Sites cont. • Most Web sites have a primary page called the home page or index page which appears when you first enter the site’s URL. • The URL can also contain other information to identify a specific page on a Web site. • **Review information**--The first part of a URL specifies the protocol required to access the document. Protocol is your set of rules used by Internet computers. For the Web, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used. • The next part of the URL is the domain name of the server that stores the Web site. This usually takes you to the site’s home page.

11. Web Sites cont. • **More Review Information**--The remainder of the URL defines the path to the document’s location on the Web server. The path lists the folder and subfolders. • At the end of the URL you may see the name of a file—the specific Web resource for which you are looking. The resource may be an HTML document or a web page, a video clip, a text file, or another type of resource. The file name extension identifies the type of resource.

12. Web Sites cont. • Pages on the Web can be added, moved, or deleted easily by their creators. • Dead links, also called stale links, are links to documents that are invalid. • This means that the URL does not link to an actual document or the document has been moved or deleted. • If you click a dead link, you may see a message that the page no longer exists in that location or you may reach a page that obviously is not one you want.

13. Web Sites cont. • Well-designed Web pages usually are not crammed with information. • Authors break their documents into smaller pieces. • Then they create a master document in hypertext that lets them create links to the pieces. • Hypertext authors don’t have to explain everything on one page. • They can define links to other documents containing additional information. • If readers want to know more about the topic, they can click the links. When they are done exploring the new page, they can jump right back to the original document. • Web page authors cite references by setting up a link to the original source.

14. Web Browsing and Research • Located on the browser’s toolbar, navigation buttons let you perform certain operations quickly. • When you click Refresh or Reload, the browser again downloads the page you are viewing. • When you click the Back button, the browser reloads the previous page. • The forward button moves ahead to pages previously viewed before Back was activated.

15. Web Browsing and Research cont. • You can customize your browser by making any web page your start page. • The page can be stored on your hard drive, a network drive, or a Web site. • The Favorites feature in Internet Explorer and the Bookmarks feature in Netscape Navigator let you create a list of frequently visited Web pages. Then, rather than retyping the URL, you can return to any bookmarked or favorite page by clicking its name in the list.

16. Web Browsing and Research cont. • Because the Web is so vast, it can be hard to locate information on a specific topic. • Subject guides and search engines can help focus that task. • Many Web sites offer subject guides to the Web, pages grouped together under headings like Careers, News or Travel. • These guides include only pages that provide useful information about the subject.

17. Web Browsing and Research cont. • If you cannot locate what you are looking for in a subject guide, use a search engine. • Type one or two keywords that describe the subject you are looking for, and then click Search. • The search engine will display a list of Web pages that contain the keywords you specified. • Search engines index key words in Web pages and maintain a database of those words. • Often, a keyword search can yield too many search results. • You can improve search effectiveness by conducting other kinds of searches. • You might try a phrase search, sentence search or a Boolean search.

18. Web Browsing and Research cont. • Boolean operators • An inclusion operator is a plus sign (+) or the word AND. It indicates that you want to find only pages that contain a match for all the specified words. Example: searching for dog+husky finds only pages that contain both words. • An exclusion operator is a minus sign (-) or the word NOT. Use it to find pages that contain certain words but not others. Example: searching for “dog+husky-sled” returns a list of pages with the words dog and husky but not sled.

19. Web Browsing and Research cont. • The operator OR gives you information on one word or another. Example: searching for dogs OR cats finds pages containing information on dogs or cats. • Many search engines let you use wildcards, or symbols that stand for other characters. The most common wildcard is the asterisk (*). A single asterisk can represent one or more characters. If you search for harvest*, you get pages with variations on the word, such as harvests and harvester. • Another common wildcard is the question mark (?). A single question mark represents a single character. If you search for to?, you get pages containing words such as top or toy.

20. Web Browsing and Research cont. • The Web includes many sites that offer valuable and reliable information. However, it also includes sites that post inaccurate, biased, objectionable, misleading, inaccurate, or dangerous information. • It is up to each user to determine whether the information is accurate and valid.

21. Web Browsing and Research cont. • Locating material in published works—many important sources of verified information are available only in libraries. Use the Internet to identify such publications. Then you can seek them out in the library. • Using authoritative online sources—some respected magazines lets you search back issues on their Web sites. It gives you the best of both worlds; the power and convenience of the Internet, plus material that is better documented than some other Web pages.

22. Web Browsing and Research cont. • Guidelines for Finding Reliable Information—verify any information you find by checking another source. The freedom of the Web leads to a greater potential for error; since pages may not be checked for accuracy of the information they contain. • Ask yourself these questions about any information you find on the Web: • Who is the author of the page? Is that author qualified to write about this topic? • Does the author indicate the source of the information presented? • Does the information appear to be accurate? Are there misspelled words and bad grammar that might indicate poor quality of content?

23. Web Browsing and Research cont. • Is the information presented logically and thoughtfully? • Does the language seem balanced and objective, or is it biased and argumentative? • What is the purpose of the page? Is the author trying to sell you something or convince you to believe something? Who benefits if the information is accepted? • Who provides the server for publishing this Web site? Who pays for the page? • Does the page show when it was created or revised? Is the page up to date?

24. Conducting Business Online • Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, is the use of telecommunications networks or the Internet to conduct business. • E-commerce is not new; companies have used wide area networks to do business for years. • Thanks to the Internet and affordable computers, e-commerce has become accessible to anyone who has an Internet connection and a Web browser. • More and more Internet users are researching products, shopping, opening bank accounts, and trading stocks online. • Many businesses realize that they may lose customers if they do not have an online presence.

25. Conducting Business Online • Online Shopping—The Web has become a global market. Most things are available for sale online. Online shopping has grown in popularity due to security features built into popular Web browsers. • The Web is an excellent resource for researching products, services, and prices. • At many sites, buyers can read product reviews posted by other buyers. At other sites, they can find vendors and product ratings. • One of the main advantages of online business is low startup cost. • For a small investment, a vendor can open a Web storefront and sell products online to a wide variety of customers better than one physical location offers.

26. Conducting Business Online • Amazon.com was launched in 1995. This company set out to change how consumers buy books. • Rather than visit a bookstore that stocks from 10,000 to 40,000 titles, consumers around the globe can log on to Amazon.com and search a database of more than three million titles. • Another example of a company that uses e-commerce extensively is eBay.com, which provides a place for buying and selling all kinds of products online.

27. Conducting Business Online • What Sells Online—Merchandise that sells successfully online ranges from clothing to jewelry, electronics to vacations, and furniture to homes and cars. • Many popular Web sites, such as Yahoo!, Lycos, AltaVista, or Netscape, offer shopping channels to help you locate items and check the latest prices. • Buyers can also access a directory of online vendors, organized by category.

28. Conducting Business Online • What Doesn't Sell Online—Not every business can successfully sell products online. • Companies that sell perishable items to home consumers, face different issues than a company that sells electronics. • One concept that failed was the online grocery store. A customer could create a personal shopping list, choose sizes and brands, and arrange to have the groceries delivered. • It was convenient and inexpensive, and it helped people who could not easily travel to the market. However, most consumers did not support the concept, and most online groceries closed.

29. Conducting Business Online • A traditional retail outlet is known as a bricks-and-mortar store. • Businesses that also sell products online are called click-and-mortar stores. • Online-only Store—Online shopping sites like eBay and Amazon.com do not sell in traditional stores. This saves the company money on salaries and overhead, so prices can be lower. • Although online shopping is convenient, if you have a problem with your purchase, you cannot talk to someone about it face-to-face. If you want to return something, you have to ship it back and sometimes pay for shipping costs, too. • Click-and-Mortar—Online stores that also have bricks-and-mortar locations have an advantage over companies that do business only online. If you are not satisfied with a product, you may be able to take it back to a store location for a refund or replacement. You can speak with someone face-to-face and get the problem resolved right away.

30. Conducting Business Online • Same Name, Different Company– In some cases, online stores have a bricks-and-mortar counterpart of the same name, but the two are different businesses. Barnes & Noble, for example, is a bookstore with locations all over the United States. • The online bookstore www.bn.com, however, is a separate company.

31. Conducting Business Online • Online Banking—In online banking, customers use a Web browser to access their accounts, balance checkbooks, transfer funds, and pay bills online. • Personal Finance Programs—Programs such as Microsoft Money or Intuit’s Quicken have features that can help you budget your money, analyze your spending habits, balance your checkbook, and make account transactions. • One drawback to these programs is that you can access your online account only from the computer on which you keep your Microsoft Money or Quicken data. Another potential problem is that anyone with access to that computer and your password can view this data.

32. Conducting Business Online • Web-based Banking—Web-based online banking allows users to access their accounts in financial institutions. • All the data is stored on the bank’s computer, not your own, so you can access your account from any computer that has an Internet connection. • You can learn about different types of services and interest rates, transfer funds, or even pay bills online. • This service allows you to set up accounts for the businesses you want to pay, along with your account number and other identifying information. • When you get a bill in the mail, you log on to your bank account, enter the amount to be paid, and pay online instead of writing a check and mailing the payment.

33. Secure Electronic Transactions • One of the keys to the growth of e-commerce is secure electronic transactions. • Customers can bank and shop online without worrying that their private information will be misused. • E-commerce Web sites use various techniques to help secure transactions. • To protect both merchants and customers, Visa, Mastercard and American Express worked together to develop a program called Secure Electronic Transactions, or SET. • Both buyers and sellers use digital signatures to identify themselves. • To ensure that the signature certificates are valid, both have to be endorsed by a third-party certificate authority, or CA, a company that verifies people’s identities from support documents provided for this purpose.

34. Secure Electronic Transactions • To participate in SET, customers have to use somewhat difficult programs. • Thus, few online merchants are currently interested in SET. • Since many credit card companies offer liability coverage, SET may be unnecessary, at least for now. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, a credit card company cannot hold the account holder responsible for more than $50 of fraudulent charges.

35. Secure Electronic Transactions • If your browser’s status bar displays an icon that looks like a locked padlock, then you are entering a secure site. If the padlock is open the page is not secure. • The vendor has taken steps to make sure that transactions are safe. • A secure site aims to protect users’ credit card numbers, names, addresses, and passwords. • Another security indicator appears in the browser’s Address bar. If the page is secure, it should use the secure http protocol, indicated by https in the Address bar. • This means that the Web site encodes all the information you send to it, so even if someone else gets the information, it will be unusable.

36. Secure Electronic Transactions • Some new businesses are helping solve the security problems of paying online. PayPal is a popular service used by millions of buyers and sellers on eBay. • Yahoo! Offers PayDirect, and Citibank has c2it. These services let you avoid repeatedly entering your credit card number and other personal data when making transactions online. • To use such a service, you sign up directly with that service and provide your payment information only once. • The service keeps your records secure and handles payments to online vendors for you, using only secure methods. • Paypal is one of the most reputable ways to pay today.