Searching and Researching the World Wide: Emphasis on Christian Websites Developed from the book: Searching and Researching on the Internet and World Wide Web By Ernest Ackermann & Karen Hartman Mary Washington College

Getting Started: Basics of the Internet and the World Wide Web Topic Areas The World Wide Web as an Information Resource Hypertext and Hypermedia Key Terms and Concepts Information Sources Available on the Web

The World Wide Web as an Information Resource The Internet is an international collection of computer networks that exchange information. The World Wide Web is the collection of information found on the Internet, linked together by hyperlinks. Each link is specified or written using a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL.

Hypertext and Hypermedia Hypertext describes text that contains hyperlinks to other text. Hypermedia refers to information that links to text, video, or sound.

Key Terms and Concepts Client/Server HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Error Messages Bookmarks and Favorites

Client/Server A relationship in which one system requests information and another provides it. The browser is the client, and a computer at the site that provides the information is the server.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Documents or files are passed from a server to a client according to specific rules for exchanging information. These rules are called protocols. The Web uses the HTTP protocol because the items passed from one computer to another are in hypertext or hypermedia form.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Provides formal rules that govern how text is displayed as part of a Web page. The browser interprets an HTML file’s contents so that graphics and images are displayed along with the text.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Hyperlinks are represented in a specific format called a URL. Each Web page has a URL as its address. The URLs that point to Web pages all start with

Error Messages 404 Errors occur when the URL is incorrect, or if it is no longer available. A 403 Forbidden Error means that the URL was correct and the file is on the server, but the file is not available to the public. It is rare to see error numbers today. Most browsers provide a more user- friendly error message.

Bookmarks and Favorites Use bookmarks and favorites to save hyperlinks for later reference. Mozilla calls them Bookmarks. Internet Explorer calls them Favorites. You’ll find that you use similar techniques for either bookmarks or favorites.

Information Sources on the Web Directories or subject catalogs Search engines Meta-search tools Virtual libraries Specialized databases Library catalogs FTP archives discussion groups Usenet newsgroups

Using the World Wide Web for Research Topic Headings: Browsing the World Wide Web: Using Directories Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines Finding fewer, but more relevant pages using Advanced Search features.

Browsing the World Wide Web: Using Directories Directories are topic lists of selected Web resources, arranged in a hierarchical way. Directories can be browsed by category or searched by keyword. Once very popular, directories are not used as much (Yahoo! Had one of the most popular) but are useful if you want to do a quick search on a topic. The Open Directory Project,

Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries Virtual libraries are directories that contain collections of evaluated resources that have carefully selected by information specialists. Subject guides, reference works, and specialized databases, are most likely found in virtual libraries. Two popular virtual libraries are the Internet Public Library, and the Librarians’ Index to the Internet,

Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines Search engines use computer programs called spiders or robots to gather information on the Internet. The information is kept in a database that is searchable. Two popular search engines are, and Yahoo!, and Google,

Advanced Searching A simple search often yields too many websites, many only tangentially related to your topic. To get better search results, use the Advanced Search option.

Advanced Search Link

Advanced Search Options

“AND” Search: with all of the words All of the search words must be in the web page for it to come up. “OR” Search: with at least one of the words Only one of the search words must be in the web page for it to come up.

Advanced Search Options “PHRASE” Search: with the exact phrase Exact phrase must be in the web page for it to come up. “NOT” Operator: without the words A web page will be excluded if any of the words are found on it.

Advanced Search Options When to use/not use: Do “And” searches with key words relating to your topic. Try and avoid doing an “OR” search. It will likely find too many irrelevant web pages. If a “Phrase” or “And” search produces no results, then try doing an “OR” search.

Advanced Search Options A “Phrase” search is ideal when searching for information on a person or title. The “Not” operator can help you filter out pages not relevant to your search. Examples…

Other Advanced Search Options Language: Specify only English or perhaps another language, if it’s a foreign language class. File Format: Looking for a.PDF or a Power Point presentation? Specify the file format you want. Date: Filter out pages not updated recently. Can be useful when researching current events.

Other Advanced Search Options Occurrences: Where are your search terms in the page? Title: Good way to narrow down pages. Text: Likely to be too broad. URL: Likely to be too narrow. Links in page: References to other pages.

Other Advanced Search Options Domain: Limit search to a WWW Domain.ORG: Non-profits..GOV: U.S. Government run websites..EDU: Web pages of colleges and other educational institutions..NET: ISPs, Networking companies.

Other Advanced Search Options Usage Rights: Different websites permit different levels of usage of their content. When properly cited, almost all web content falls within “fair use.” Safe Search: Exclude sites that contain objectionable content.

Favorite Christian Websites Has every major translation of the Bible. Search by verse or search by word/phrase. Has most hymns: music, lyrics, as well a story behind the hymn.