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Uusing the world wide web for accessing information

Uusing the world wide web for accessing information. Structure of the Web The information available on the World Wide Web travels over a computer network called the Internet. The Internet consists of connections between a vast number of computers around the world. 

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Uusing the world wide web for accessing information

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  1. Uusingthe world wide webforaccessing information

  2. Structure of the Web • The information available on the World Wide Web travels over a computer network called the Internet. The Internet consists of connections between a vast number of computers around the world.  • Compared to publishing a book or producing a television show, creating a Web page is easy and inexpensive. • Many individuals who cannot reach large audiences through traditional media, such as books, radio, or television, can communicate their ideas on the Web.  • In addition to these individually-produced Web pages, many businesses and organizations are finding the Web to be an excellent method of distributing information to the public.

  3. Information on the Web • The Web has no overriding organizational scheme or structure. Unlike most electronic databases, there is generally no indexing by topic or subject. • Although most information on the Web is "free" (i.e., it can be accessed without restrictions, passwords, fees, etc), some resources on the Web require subscriptions. For example, some newspapers only allow free access to selected articles and require registration and payment for the entire issue. • Also, remember that information on the Web is not screened or edited. Since anyone can publish a Web page, the type and quality of material tends to vary!

  4. Types of Web Sites • There are many different types of Web sites. • Some Web pages provide • information or news • attempt to influence public opinion • sell products • Entertainment • Personal outlets • Many Web pages may blur the line between entertainment, information, and marketing/advertising. • Web domains • The following are several broad categories or domains of Web sites which can be distinguished by the letters at the end of the Web address. (A Web address is also known as a Uniform Resource Locator or URL). These letters are a clue as to what type of Web site you are visiting. 

  5. Search Engines There is no search engine that will search the entire Internet at once. The most popular Web search engines may only cover up to 25% of all the content that is available. Often, information about coverage can be found in a search engine's Help or About Us sections.  There are many search engines available on the Web. Here is a sample list: Alta Vista / Excite / HotBot / InfoSeek / Lycos Magellan / WebCrawler / Google / Northern Light Search Engine Tips Always look for the HELP button on the search engine you select. Useful search features and options may be explained there.

  6. Subject Directories • Subject directories are lists of Web sites arranged by topic or broad subject area. They are great starting points and are useful for general topic browsing. • For example, Google and Yahoo offer Web directories with a comprehensive compilation of subject categories. 

  7. Metasearch Tools Metasearch tools use several search engines at the same time to search the Web. This can be a time saver when doing extensive searches where you require the broadest coverage.  A few sample metasearch tools are:

  8. 99% 1998/04/08 http://www.hkta.org/search.html Hong Kong Tourist AssociationONLINE SEARCH You can use this form to search the pages of Hong Kong Tourist Association World Wide Web site. This facility requires a forms-capable browser. Enter the word or words you want to search for. Separate multiple words with spaces. Case.. Interpreting Web Search Engine Results • Look to see if the following information is available: • annotation - most search engines provide "annotations" with search results.  An annotation is usually an explanation but these annotations usually just show the first few sentences of the Web page. They often, however,  provide a good indication about the content of the site. • ranking- some search engines rank results by various criteria such as relevance, comparing the information in the site against the information in the search query. • date- the results from search engines provide a date which may be useful for evaluating the currency of a Web site. Be aware that the date could refer to when the page was created or updated. • domain- most search engines provide the URL of the retrieved sites. Check the domain of the URL to determine whether the Web page is hosted on an educational site (.edu), a government site (.gov), an association/organization (.org) or a commercial site (.com) Once you have linked to a retrieved site, check to see if any information is provided about the producer/creator of the Web page. Often this type of information is available through links such as, about this page, about us, about this site, or a link to the site's home page.

  9. Evaluating Information from the World Wide Web Anyone can publish anything on the Web. The information you find on the web may not be screened or checked for accuracy! It is up to you to evaluate the quality of the material you find on the Web. • The following questions can help you judge the quality of a particular Web site:  • Accuracy • How reliable and error free is the information? • What kind of documentation or references are provided? • Authority • Is the author or source identified?  • What kind of qualifications does the author have?  • Is a credible sponsoring institution cited?  • Is there a link back to the sponsoring institution's home page?  • Objectivity • Is the site designed to inform, persuade, or sell?  • Is personal bias apparent? • Currency • How recently was the site created or updated?  • (This kind of information can be located by checking the header, body, and footer of a Web document.)

  10. Summary • This presentation covered the following objectives: • understanding what the World Wide Web is and how it is structured  • understanding how the Web is organized (or not organized) • knowing what types of information can be found on the Web  • being able to identify the major types of Web sites • understanding the difference between "free" and "fee" Web sites • understanding and being able to use a variety of Web searching tools  • being able to evaluate and interpret Web search results 

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