Introduction to Web Browsers and Basic

Search Strategies Using Search Engines

COMPILED BY : SHEHROZ
ILYAS
MCS IN COMPUTER
SCIENCE
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Outline

 History (WWW & Internet)

 Search tools
 Search Engines vs. Subject Directory
 Meta search Engines
 Steps for Searching
 Effective Strategies
 Narrow or broaden a search?
 Wildcards

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Internet History

 Internet made up of thousands of networks worldwide

 No one in charge of Internet - No governing body
 Internet backbone owned by private companies

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Looking at the Net

Taken from: http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/sem2_net.html

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Understanding the Map

 Computers use TCP/IP to communicate (Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol)
 Computers use client/server architecture

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Internet Providers:

 Research and Educational Institutions

 Government and Military Entities
 Businesses
 Private Organizations
 Commercial Providers

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Internet Protocols

Email (Simple Mail

Transport Protocol)
Telnet (Login to remote host
computer)
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- transfers files between
server and client
HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol)

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 History
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 WWW or Web or W3 includes all information, text,

images, audio, video, and computational services that
are accessible from the internet
 July 8, 1999 Nature - approximately 800 million
pages of publicly accessible information(1)
 Web continues to grow, tripling in size over the past
two years(2)

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WWW(World wide web)

 System of Internet servers that support

hypertext to access several Internet protocols
on a single interface
 Almost all protocols accessible on Internet
are accessible on web (email - FTP - Telnet -
etc)
 In addition, WWW own protocol:
HyperText Transfer Protocol

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HTTP

 Hypertext - means of information retreival

 Contains links that connect to other documents
 Links selected by user
 Virtual “web” of connections

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HTTP (cont)

 Produce HTTP through HTML

 HyperText Markup Language
 Way of writing or creating with “tags” added to tell
information
 i.e. <b> Bold </b> yields Bold

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Web Popular Because:

 Easy to use
 Easy to navigate
 Combines words, graphics,
sound, video
 Easy to Publish
 Plethora of information
 Reach larger audience

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Summary: Web vs. Internet

 What is the relationship between the web and the Internet?

 The Internet contains physical components
 computers
 networks
 services

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Web vs. Internet

 The Internet connects

thousands of computers
across the world, but it is
the web that allows
communication to occur
 Web - abstraction and
common set of services on
top of the Internet
 Web - set of protocols and
tools that let us share
information with each
other

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 How Do I Find 17

Information on the Internet?

 Join an email discussion or USENET newsgroup
 Go directly to a site if you have the address
 Browse
 Explore subject directory
 Conduct Search

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 How Does Information Get Indexed by the
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Search Tools

 A publisher of a web page can register the site with the search engine or
directory
 Database collects data autonomously

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Web Browsers

 Netscape Navigator (Communicator)

 Product of Netscape (Now owned by AOL)
 Originally was dominant
 Multi-platform (all operating systems)
 Internet Explorer
 Product of Microsoft
 Current Dominant Browser
 Not available for all operating systems
 Browser compatibility problems can cause web page problems

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 Netscape Search 20

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 Netscape Search 21

 1: Access to different
search engines
 2. Type words or
phrases into text
entry box
 3. Click Button
 4. Preserve favorite
search engine

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Internet Explorer Search

•Separate Panel In Browser

•Uses MicroSoft Network
search

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Internet Explorer Search

 Direct access to only Microsoft Network’s search engines

 Allows easy access to different types of search
 Web pages
 People
 Businesses
 Maps

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Internet Keywords

Type straight in location

bar of Netscape/Explorer
Simple words instead of
URL (uniform resource
location)
Words tie to websites
Can be tied to language
preference
Example: Typing in
maryland converts to
http://www.state.md.us/

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Know your URL’s

 “Address” of a file on the Internet

 Contains type of protocol followed by the computer name, directory and file
name
 Examples
 http://www.capecod.net/Wixon/wixon.htm

 gopher://gopher.boombox.micro/

 ftp:// wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/windows/psp3.zip
 mailto:kschrock@capecod.net

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Anatomy of a Web Address

 protocol://host/path/filename
See handout “Anatomy of a Web Address”

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 Two Basic Approaches to Searching 27

(although not really “basic”)

 Search Engines
 Subject Directories

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 Search Engines vs. Directories 28

Directories
 Human aided, organized list Search Engines
 May be general or subject-
 Computer built index of
specific information on web
 May be able to “search” directory
 More inclusive
 Google - general  Used to find specific resources
 NetTech Educational Technology  Searchable by keyword
Coordinator Website - subject specific
 Excessive “hits”
 User has control of browsing
 Every page of a Website is
 Fixed vocabulary indexed
 Links go to Website home pages  Better for general searches, but
only can be used to find specific
 Better at general searches information
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 What are Search Engines? 29

 Designed to assist you in searching through the enormous amount of

information on the Web
 No single search tool has everything
 Each engine is a large database which utilizes different search techniques and
tools (spiders or robots) to build indexes to the Internet (some also utilize
submissions and administration)

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Which Search Engine?

 Yahoo
 Altavista
 Excite
 Google
 NorthernLights
 Hotbot
 Infoseek
See Handout - “The Little Search Engine that Could”

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 How to Choose 31

Consider
 Size of the database (# of URLs)
 Currency of the database (updates)
 Search interface
 Help screens
 Search features
 Results listed (# of documents retrieved)
 Relevance of results

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 More About Search 32

Engines
 Searches for matching
terms (keywords or several
keywords)
 Results “ranked” by
relevancy (for some)
 Can search by
 subject or category
 keyword
 Learn about each search
engine’s description,
options, and rules and
restrictions

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GO TO

http://www.google.com/hel
p.html

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 Searches for exact matches

 Try different versions of your search term
 Example: “Boston hotel” vs. “Boston hotels”

 Rephrase query
 Example: “cheap plane tickets” vs. “cheap airplane tickets”

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 Automatically places “and” between words (expands search)

 To reduce search –
 add more terms in original search
 refine search within the current search results. (adding terms to first words
will return a subset of the original query)
 Exclude a word by using a – sign
 Example: to search bass but not speaker  bass –speaker
 Does not support “or” operator
 Does not support “stemming” or “wildcard” searches
 Not case sensitive

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 Finds street maps

 Just enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/state into
the search box
 Google recognizes query as a map request

Try your address

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How to Interpret Results

See Handout

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Related Questions:

 What is http:?
 Define TCP/IP?
 What is the purpose of using html ?
 What is MAC address?
 what is the working of Browser?
 How does search engine works?
 What are internet servers?

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