Definitions of terms

Internet: The Internet is a "network of networks", a global linkage of millions of

computers, containing vast amounts of information, much of it available to anyone with
a modem or network connection. Started as a U.S. Department of Defense project in
1969, today the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining entity accessible to
hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the
total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication networks.

Web Page: A web page is a file similar to a word-processed document, except it's
written in a language called html (hypertext mark-up language) that allows it to be
viewed in a graphic format. Web pages are stored on individual web servers throughout
the world. The "world wide web" (www) contains an estimated over 8 billion web pages
and is the most widely used portion of the Internet.

Link or Hyperlink: Part of a web page document that, when activated (usually by
clicking it), jumps to another document, graphic, or web page.

Browser: A software package installed on your computer that allows you to view web
pages on the Internet. The two major browsers today are Microsoft's Internet Explorer
and Netscape.

Search Engine: An online software program that uses various algorithms to find and
retrieve information on web pages (some search engines are: Google, AltaVista, Yahoo,
Lycos, Excite). Users select a Search Engine and enter key words to find particular
web sites.

URL: Stands for "uniform resource locator." It is a string of characters (always beginning
with http://) that identifies the location of every page, graphic image, and file on the
World Wide Web. The URL is most commonly referred to as the "web address" for a
particular web site or home page. The library's web address is
http://www.natronacountylibrary.org/.
 Web address endings/naming
conventions
Knowing what type of organization produced a web page can help you evaluate its
credibility. Knowing web page naming conventions can help you find many pages
without having to perform a search. Here are some of the most common endings you'll
see, with their naming conventions:

.com: commercial (most corporate sites use this) – www.companyname.com (e.g.

www.pepsi.com)

.edu: education (used by schools or colleges) – www.schoolname.edu (e.g.

www.ucla.edu)

.gov: federal government agency – www.agencyname.gov (e.g.

www.federalreserve.gov)

.mil: military agency – www.agencyname.mil (e.g. www.army.mil)

.net: network (a catchall category -- could be anything) – www.agencyname.net (e.g.

www.onlinecooking.net)

.org: organization (usually a non-profit group) – www.agencyname.org (e.g.

www.natronacountylibrary.org)

.state.wy.us: Wyoming state government -- www.state.wy.us

(any other state will use its two-letter zip code address instead of wy, e.g. state.ca.us)
 Search Engines
Search engines gather an index of web sites, and then allow you to reference their
index by typing in keywords to get a list of potential matches to your interests. Most
search engines also provide special features to make searching easier: searching by
subject through at least part of their index, a variety of advanced functions that help
users refine their searches, links to popular subjects, links to popular reference sources
like dictionaries and phone directories, and advice on searching. Search engines differ
from each other and change frequently; refer to their instructions for hints and how-tos.
For more about search engines, see:
http://searchenginewatch.com/.

Dogpile
www.dogpile.com/
Zippy in style and friendly in tone, Dogpile has good advanced searching and decent
help. It claims “by searching with Dogpile.com instead of a single engine, you get the top
results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search and Ask Jeeves all at once.”

FirstGov
www.firstgov.gov/
This is the U.S. Government's official directory for federal departments and
agencies. It is organized by both organization and topic, similar to Yahoo, with an
efficient keyword search function.

Google
www.google.com/
One of the best of the "metasearch" engines. Instead of collecting one index and
allowing you to search it as a standard search engine does, a metasearch engine
has arrangements with selected other engines to allow you to access multiple
indexes with one search. This broader coverage is most useful when you are
sure of your keywords, but cannot offer the extensive advanced searching and
refining features of some of the other search engines

Yahoo
www.yahoo.com/
According to their website, “The goal of Yahoo! Search is to discover and index
all of the content available on the web to provide the best possible search
experience to users.” Yahoo is a directory. Directories are search engines
powered by human beings. Human editors compile all the listings that directories
have. This may effect your search.
MSN (Live Search)
www.msn.com
Much like other search engines, but also allows users to save searches, adjust
the amount of information displayed, and search from mobile devices, like cell
phones. Powered by Microsoft.