LESSON THREE

The Internet Browsers

What's a BROWSER?

Definition: A browser is a software program that lets you explore the World Wide Web to find text, graphics, sound, movies, games, chats and more.

Explanation:

A browser helps you link to pages on websites around the world. To find a website, type in a URL (web address) in the address window or click a link or a button in the toolbar.

Bookmarks and Favorites
With over 100 million websites and more coming online daily, you will undoubtedly find ones you want to revisit. Bookmarks and Favorites save Web addresses

so you can return to them quickly, without having to retype them. Whether you are using Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or another browser, the procedure is similar.

To save a web page, go to Bookmarks or Favorites on the menu bar and click on Add to... When you open your list, the title of the page you added will appear at the bottom of the list. To access the page, double-click on the title.

TRY THIS...
Here's another way to bookmark a web page: click on this page once with your right mouse button and select Add Bookmark or Add to Favorites from the pop-up menu.

Put Your Links in Order

After a while you'll discover that you've got dozens of bookmarks. It's now time to organize them into folders.

If you use Internet Explorer 7.0, click on Favorites on the menu bar to open the Favorites window. Now select Organize Favorites. Click the New Folder button to create a folder, then name it. We suggest organizing your bookmarks in folders by subjects, such as Sports, Travel, News, Games, etc. Now click on each Favorite once, hold down your left mouse button and drag the Favorite into the appropriate subject folder.

With Firefox 2.0, click on Bookmarks on the menu bar to open the Bookmarks window. Now select Organize Bookmarks. Click the New Folder button to create a folder, name it, click on each Bookmark once, hold down your left mouse button and drag it into the subject folders.

If you use Navigator 7.0, click on Bookmarks on the menu bar, then Manage Bookmarks from the drop-down list. You can now create new folders and drag your existing bookmarks into the appropriate subject folder.

UNDERSTANDING URLs

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the Web Address of a web page, or some other kind of document, that is available on the Internet. It is the instruction to your browser regarding the exact location on the Internet of the page you want to visit.

For example: http://www.cnn.com OR http://halfstepbeyondbasics.blogspot.com

The way that information is transferred by way of the browser. That is known as the protocol. In this case the browser is to use Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. (http://) The language of web pages is known as HTML, Hypertext Markup Language.

The domain name, or location of the computer on the World Wide Web which hosts the page. Once a domain is registered the information provided by that domain must have a host computer where the files are stored.

That computer is called a server. Some places are huge collections of servers known as “server farms.” Servers which host huge collections of data must organize that data in directories or file folders. Anything following the domain name which is also followed by a slash is the name of a directory. Very large collections of data may require sub-directories, or folders within folders.

Each file in the directory must have a unique name. Some get very complicated. Spaces should not be in file names.

Using URLs

A URL can be typed into the address box on your browser. Type carefully, if one character is wrong you will not get to the page. After typing in the URL press the Enter key to go to the page.
Usually you will use a URL by following a link on another web page. After reading these instructions go to http://cnn.com. When you get there put your cursor over the CNN URL, but do not click. Your mouse pointer will change to a hand indicating that the words are a link to another page. Look in the status bar, the gray bar at the bottom of your browser window. You will see the URL of the place those words link to.

404 - File Not Found
For a variety of reasons, web pages disappear from the Internet. If the page has been moved to another server most webmasters provide a link redirecting you to the new page. If there is no link to send you to the new location you will get the message above. Try working backward in the URL.
One step at a time remove items up to the next slash then press the Enter key. If you continue to get “404 - File not found” each time, give up on the URL and search for another.

Navigating the Internet (IE)

Setting your Home Page

Assuming you are in Internet Explorer, go to the web page you want to make your home page. Lots of people make Google their home page. Click on the HOME (house) icon on the COMMAND BAR that sits just above the IE window on the right and click ADD or CHANGE HOME PAGE. Using the Standard Button toolbar and or the Command Bar.

AOL toolbar and Google toolbar

Download Google toolbar: http://www.download.com/Google-Toolbar-for-Internet-Explor/3000-12777_4-10782376.html

Customize Command Bar – right click on Command bar and click on CUSTOMIZE toolbar

Browsing with Internet Explorer
Regular browsing
Browse by keyword or web address
Tabbed browsing

Exercises
Search for "Crooks and Liars"
Search for AIG and recent financial difficulties
Hurricane Ike
Find info on Golden Grove by Francine Prose

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