Introduction to the World Wide Web

• Workshop Description, Prerequisites

. . . And After

• Tutorials and Glossaries
• Get Connected to the Internet
• Types of information you can find on the Web

The World Wide Web provides access to a worldwide collection of documents, but is only one of many services available on the Internet - others include:

• Electronic Mail - There are many programs for reading and managing email
  • Access UW Email
  • Pine runs on UW computers, e.g. Homer, Dante - use telnet to make a connection between your desktop computer and the UW computer
  • Desk top email readers help read and manage email, e.g. Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express
• Web Chat and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
  • Q&A Live is a local example of a web chat service
  • Chat Web is one of many social spaces on the web
• Newsgroups (Usenet)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Telnet
  • SPL Catalog is available with both a web and a telnet interface
• A Web Browser integrates your access to all of these Internet services!

How Big is the World Wide Web and How is it being Used?

The Web Browser is a software program installed on your local computer that manages your navigation on the web and presents the information retrieved. Internet Explorer and Netscape are the most popular browser programs. Let's practice using some of the browser navigation features.

• Forward and Back
  • available as Buttons
  • available on the Menu Bar
    • Select View, then Go To, then Back or Forward

• History
  • From the Menu Bar select View, then Explorer Bar, then History.

• View - toolbar, status bar

• Adjust Browser Text Size Display

• View foreign language fonts

• Choose Your Browser Home Page

• Practice Organizing Favorites (called Bookmarks in Netscape)

• Find on this Page (a quick navigational tip for LONG web pages that require lots of scrolling / page down)

• Managing the Browser Cache

• Basics about Cookies - and we ain't talking chocolate chip!
  • The Unofficial Cookie FAQ - from cookiecentral.com
  • Cookie information from the Electronic Privacy Information Center
  • How Internet Cookies Work, from How Stuff Works

What does the web browser do? These images by Rick Ells prove the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Addresses on the Web

• Each web page has a unique address
• There are no spaces in web addresses
• Web addresses are case sensitive which means that A is different than a
• If you know a page's address, you can see that page by typing the address in the "Location" box
• Typing errors are the most common reason for the "Document Not Found" message - if an address you've typed won't work, check your typing and try again!
• Strategies for the "Document Not Found" Dilemma