Finding sites and topics on the web

As with everything else on the internet, there are many different ways to find specific web sites or information. I am going to cover just a few of the most popular methods.

Web Indexes

One of the most popular methods of finding information or specific sites on the web is by using a Web Index. A Web Index is a web site or a magazine or a book that contains a list of web sites organized by category. These indexes usually provide a short description of each site in the index. Also, the online versions of these indexes usually provide a way to search the index for specific words, phrases, or topics. One of the most popular web indexes is Yahoo. Yahoo is also one of my favorites. The descriptions of the web sites listed in Yahoo are initially provided by the author of each web site. Before the site is included, a worker at Yahoo reads the description, visits the web site, and if necessary edits the description.

There are two basic ways to find information at Yahoo (and other web indexes). You can either start at the beginning of the index and work your way through the categories until you find a category that contains the information you are looking for, or you can use their search feature. To use the search feature, you come up with a word or words or a short phrase that describes what you are looking for. Then you enter that into the form and press the search button. Usually the best collections of words or phases are short and to the point. The search feature will list every site and category name that contains the words your entered. If you do not find any sites or categories, try thinking up different words with similar meanings. If you come up with way too many sites, try to think of words that are more specific to the topic.

Search Engines

A search engine, such as Digital's Alta Vista or Inktomi's HotBot, is a huge database of web sites. A search engine is different than a web index because instead of listing each web site with a brief description, the database contains every word on every page of the web site. This means that when you search for a word or phrase it searches the entire contents of each web site in the database rather than just searching for that word or phrase in the brief descriptions and titles. This means that a word or phrase that finds 10 or 20 sites in a web index may find thousands of sites in a search engine.

I find that I tend to use search engines much more than I use web indexes because the search engines cover more information. However, many people find that web indexes are easier because they do not return as many sites. It all depends on what you are comfortable with, and what you need.

Since each search engine is different, I find it easiest to pick a single search engine and use that one most of time. You may want to pick a fast one such as Digital's Alta Vista or a very large one such as HotBot. Which one people use is usually based on personal preference rather than specific advantages. Which ever one you pick, spend a while reading through the help pages. By following all the advice in the help pages, your searches will yield better results. As time goes by and your experience with that search engine grows, your understanding of how to build a good search phrase will improve and you will find the search engines more and more useful.

Surfing the web

One of the most popular entertainment uses of the web nowadays is called surfing. That's when you go out on the web and "surf" from one site to the next, never knowing for sure where you are going to end up. Basically, start out at a search engine or web index, find a site that interests you. Then when you are done at that site follow a link listed in that site to another site. Then follow a link at the new site to another site, and so forth until you have run out of time, you spouse has left you, your children don't recognize you anymore...

Most sites out on the web have a page or a section devoted entirely to links to other web sites. For example, if you went into my Reviews section, you would notice that it is entirely about other web sites. As you surf through sites, you start to understand why this is called the World Wide Web. It is a huge collection of strands (links) connecting a vast array of pages. Starting at almost any page you can eventually get to almost any other page on the Web!

For example, let's say I start at my homepage. I could follow the link at the icon "Best viewed by any browser." At that page I could follow the link to the list of "Web Sites Participating in this campaign." From that page I could go to "Aaron's Home Page." From the links page at his site I could go on to "The American Contract Bridge League" web site. And then to "Crystal and Peter consultant java web development netdynamics." And on to the "San Francisco Bay Area Restaurant Directory." And so forth forever...

If you want an adventurous web surf, I suggest you start out in my Reviews section. Every week I post a short review of an adventure related site that I enjoyed visiting. The Reviews section contains the current week's review, a page containing all of my previous reviews, and a page that contains many, many links which I did not review.

As I get time, I will not only add more articles about the web, I will also add articles about other uses of the internet, such as FTP, Usenet, etc. If you have any questions or need any help, please contact me. I will not only try to help you, I will also post my answers here in the attempt to help others.