Navigation of the Web
We mentioned in the previous section that you can
always go to a site you know the domain name for simply
by typing http://www.domainname.com in the window at the
top. Http stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and this
is the protocol for looking at web pages. Quite often you
will see a URL or address that is much longer. For
example, http://www.logantele.com/hotlinks/hotindex.htm The previous example shows how a URL is built. A URL may consist of http://, ftp://, gopher://, or many other protocols. Then comes the server’s domain name which is followed by the folder and filenames on the computer. Well that’s great but you’ve got to be kidding if you expect me to remember all those server names, protocols, folders, and files?” That’s right, I am kidding. The Internet makes it easy for you to get from place to place without typing in all those URL’s. The first way we do this is with links. Links appear on web pages and when you click on them they take you to another page or let you do something. When you move your mouse pointer over a link it usually turns into a hand. Most links are blue underlined words, but they can be different colors or even pictures. When you click on a link you will go to another page or send mail or download a file. All a link really does is enter a URL for you. When you move your pointer over a link the URL will be displayed at the bottom of your browser. When you click on the link it goes to this URL for you. This makes it easy to “surf the web”. Take for example the following link to our hotlinks page. Hotlinks -see how it appears as underlined. When you move your pointer over the link the URL will appear at the bottom of the screen on most browsers. The link may be a different color than blue. If the link is a different color than other links, you have visited this link before. Most browsers keep up with links you have been to before for a certain number of days and this number of days may be changed in its setup. The next way to get around is by using bookmarks. Most browsers include link pages, bookmarks, or favorites. When you find a site you like you just go through the menus of the program and add the site to your bookmarks, favorites, or link page. From then on you may revisit the site by clicking on the name instead of typing in the URL or taking a certain path through other pages to get there. Every browser handles these bookmarks differently so you should look under the help menu to find out exactly how your browser handles bookmarks. Emissary will even let you customize the buttons you see at the top of the browser window. You can add buttons that will take you to your favorite sites just by clicking on them. You should also become familiar with the back and forward buttons at the top of your browser. These buttons are used to page back and forth between web pages that you have visited during your current time on-line. If you accidentally jump to a page that you did not want to go to just click on the back button to return to the last page visited. You may then click on the forward button to go forward. It’s kind of like adding pages to a book. The first page you visit will be the first page of the book and you keep adding pages as you go. You can then use the back and forward buttons to turn the pages of your book. The home page or start page is also a useful tool that you may
setup for your browser. This page is the page that you will start at when you log-on
each time. We recommend you set this to
http://www.logantele.com It’s difficult to navigate anything if you don’t know where you want to go. Our hotlinks show many sites and you may see URL’s on TV, in magazines or newspapers, or someone may tell you one, but there are many many more sites on the Internet. The way to find the sites that you are looking for is by using a Search Engine. Search Engines are programs that run on the Internet to help you find sites. Most search engines work the same. You usually type in a subject and hit a button and the search engines display links to sites that have something to do with that subject. There are many different search engines on the Internet but two of the most popular are Yahoo! and Webcrawler. You can find links to these pages from our home page or on our Hotlinks page. You can also reach them by typing in their URL’s http://www.webcrawler.com or http://www.yahoo.com You should try out the different search engines and see which ones you like and the ones that give you the information you are searching for. Each search engine is different so if you don’t find what you are looking for with one, try another. It is important to remember that you should always start with as specific a subject as possible and then move to more general topics. It is not uncommon for a general topic to bring back tens of thousands of links or pages. There are also many books and magazines that list sites on the Internet. One of the most popular is called the Internet Yellow Pages. If you cannot find a particular kind of site you are looking for please let us know and we will assist you in any way we can. Now You Shoud Be
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