CIMIC/MUSIC - World Wide Web Search Engines

WWW Search Engines and Netscape

What You'll Be Learning About Today

WWW Search Engines
WWW Searching Exercises
More Netscape Features
More Topics for This Week

WWW Search Engines

Purpose: To learn how to search the WWW using a variety of search engines.

There have been estimates that as many as 50 million WWW pages are on the Internet.
A new Web page is created every minute.
How can you find pages of interest ?
Answer: WWW Search Engines!
How does a WWW Search Engine work ?
First, an Index of Web pages is built:
1. A special program is written to systematically access every Web page.
2. The contents of each page are Indexed.
3. All of the indexes are collected into a database along with the URLs of each page.
To Search for a Web page:
1. A user types a few key words related to their topic.
2. Matching words or phrases are found in the index.
3. The corresponding URLs are displayed to the user.
Some search engines are more sophisticated. They include reviews by people who browse the Web every day.

Search engines to try

These search engines and descriptions are from Netscape's search page.

AltaVista http://altavista.digital.com: Offering compact or detailed searches through what the company claims is the largest Web index, Digital Equipment Corporation's Alta Vista can help you find your way through 8 billion words filling 30 million Web pages. It also provides a full-text index of more than 13,000 newsgroups.
InfoSeek http://guide.infoseek.com: Rated the number one search service by PC Computing, Infoseek Guide helps you find what you're looking for on the Net, for free. With each search, you get the most relevant matches, related topics to explore, and timely news and views from popular magazines, TV networks, and the best online experts. Infoseek Guide also makes it easy to find email addresses, stock quotes, company profiles, and more.
Lycos http://a2z.lycos.com: The Lycos A2Z directory takes a new position in the crowded field of Net directories. A2Z starts with the most frequently linked sites, and adds concise, authoritative descriptions. From the best kids' pages to the world's film festivals, to UFOs and virtual psychics, A2Z has it.
YaHoo! http://www.yahoo.com: Arguably the pioneer Internet guide, Yahoo! has been organizing Web content since what seems like the beginning of it all. Updated daily, Yahoo! allows users to both browse and search subject categories. In addition to using Yahoo!'s search functions, check out up-to-the-minute sports scores, weather, headlines, and stock quotes.

WWW Searching Exercises

Purpose: To become more familiar with using WWW Search Engines.

I've heard about this neat thing called the JASON Project and that there is information about the sunken ship The RMS Titanic on their Web page. Use the InfoSeek Guide search engine to find JASON. Then find out how far down The Titanic sits on the ocean floor.
1. Pull down the File menu and choose the Open Location menu choice.
2. Type in the URL for InfoSeek
  http://guide.infoseek.com
3. Press Enter and the InfoSeek Guide web page will appear. This might take a minute since we are all accessing the page at the same time.
4. Type in the word JASON in the field provided.
5. Click on the "Seek Now" button to search.
6. After a short wait, the results page will appear. Scroll through the results until you see the entry for the JASON Project Home Page Overview.
7. Scroll down until you see the entry for the RMS Titanic. Click on that link.
8. A page will appear describing the discovery of the Titanic.
9. Scroll down to see a list of many more WWW sites devoted to the Titanic.

Try the following search tasks on your own

Use the InfoSeek Guide to search for information on the Amazon Rain Forest. How large is the Amazon Rain Forest ?
Use the AltaVista WWW search engine to look for information on the hole in the ozone layer in Antarctica. Find the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "Ozone Home Page". Find out what methyl bromide is and how it harms the ozone layer.
Use the Yahoo! search engine to find web sites about William Shakespeare.
Use any of the WWW search engines to look up your favorite music group. See if anyone has set up a Web page about them.

Netscape Features

Purpose: To learn some features of Netscape application.

In the next class, you will begin to learn how to program HTML pages.
Often you'll come across an interesting page on the Web and you'll ask yourself "...How'd they do that ?"
There are a few ways to find out...
1. You can View the HTML "source code" for the Web page.
2. You can Save the HTML "source code" to a file on your floppy disk.

Function	How to Do It
To Create a new Netscape Window	Click on the File Menu Choose New Web Browser menu item Notes: You will see that you will have 2 active Netscape windows.
To Open a Specific File on the Netscape	Sometimes we want to open an HTML file that does not have an http address. Click on the File Menu Choose Open File... menu item Specify the location of the file As an exercise try to open an HTML file that is stored in c:\ with the file name c:\note.htm
To Save an HTML File that is being viewed on Netscape Window	Sometimes we want to save interesting HTML file as our own file for future use. Click on the File Menu Choose New Web Browser menu item Specify the complete name of the file you like the HTML page to be saved into As an exercise. Try to save the current page of today's note into your disckette. And give it the name A:\notes.htm
To preview an HTML printed page on Screen	Sometimes we want to preview the printed page on the screen before we send the page to the printer. Click on the File Menu Choose Print Preview menu item Use the available buttons to print, to close, to zoom or others As an exercise. Print the current page that you are on now.
To print an HTML page without previewing it first on the screen	Click on the File Menu Choose Print... menu item Specify the number of copy you want to have Press enter to start printing
To open an HTML page when you know its URL address	Click on the File Menu Choose Open Location... menu item You can also do the same through editing the URL field located on top of the Netscape window. As an exercise try to open Rutgers Homepage with URL : www.rutgers.edu
To close the current Netscape window	Click on the File Menu Choose Close menu item
To exit from the Netscape application	Click on the File Menu Choose Exit menu item
To go back to the previously viewed page	Click on the Go Menu Choose Back menu item You can also do the same through clicking the Back button on top of the Netcape window.
To display the next page	Click on the Go Menu Choose Forward menu item You can also do the same through clicking the Forward button on top of the Netcape window. Note: You need to go Back at least once before you can Forward
To go to or display the home page	Click on the Go Menu Choose Home menu item You can also do the same through clicking the Home button on top of the Netcape window. Note: Everytime you start Nestcape application, it automatically display the home page first.
To change the home page default	Click on the Option Menu Choose General Preferences... menu item Type in the URL for the new home page As an exercise try to use Rutgers page: www.rutgers.edu as our default home page.
Look at the "Source Code" for an HTML page	Navigate to a Web page that interests you. Pull down the View menu and choose the View Source menu item. A new window will appear with the HTML source listed. Use the scroll bars to scroll through the page. You can also copy the code or a particularly interesting piece of code to the Windows clipboard by highlighting the words with the mouse (Click and drag) and then pressing `^C` to "Copy" the code to the Windows clipboard. You can then switch to a Notepad editor, for example, and press `^V` to "Paste" the code in your own HTML page.
Saving an Image to a file	It is also possible to save an Image to a file. This is handy for "borrowing" icons and background images from various Web sites for inclusion into your Web pages. Navigate to a Web page that interests you. Click on the image with the Right mouse button. A menu will appear. Choose the Save This Image As option from the menu. A dialog box will appear asking you for a file name for the image. In many cases, a file name will already be suggested. Type the file name, including any drive letter or directories you'd like to place it in. For example, if the floppy drive is the A: drive: `A:\MYIMAGE.GIF` Note you must follow the DOS file name convention of 8 letters, a period and then a three letter extension. The extension for GIF files is typically `.GIF` and the extension for JPEG files is typically `.JPG`
Changing the Displayed Font Size	Pull down the Options menu and select the General Preferences menu item. Click once on the "Fonts" tab along the top of the dialog box. There are two fonts that you can change - the proportional font and the fixed font. This is Proportional `This is Fixed Font` Click on the "Choose Font" button next to the style font you would like to change (Proportional or fixed). A "Choose Base Font" dialog box will appear. Change the "Size" in the dialog box. Click on the "OK" button to confirm the font choice. Click on the "OK" button to close the Preferences dialog box. The screen will re-draw.
Adding a URL to the Bookmark file	When browsing around the Web, you will come across Web sites that you would like to re-visit from time to time. Most Web browsers, including Netscape, can create a "Bookmark" for later reference. To create a bookmark: Navigate to a Web page of interest. Pull down the Bookmarks menu and choose Add Bookmark. The URL of the Web site will be added to the Bookmarks menu. To go to a page marked with a book mark, pull down the Bookmarks menu and choose the Web site on the menu. Please Note: In the computer lab environment, the bookmarks may be automatically cleared at the end of each session.
Deleting a bookmark	Go to Bookmarks menu Choose Go to Bookmarks menu item. You will see a different window (the bookmark window). With your mouse select on the bookmark you want to delete Pull down the Edit menu Select Delete menu item Exit the bookmark window by double-clicking on the small box at the upper-left corner of the bookmark window or by chossing File menu and choose Exit menu item.
To do a search on the internet	Go to Directory menu Choose Internet Search menu item. Here you can choose any of the available search engines by clicking the search engine before carrying any search. As an exercise click the Yahoo! search engine and search for any subject related to Biology.

Try the following exercise

Search for any music group or singer that you like. Use the search feature of Netscape.
Keep browsing the pages of your favorite music group or singer until you see an interesting page.
Once you find an interesting page about your favorite music group of singer. Add the URL of that page into your bookmark.
View the Source document (the HTML page source code) of the page.
Print the source code by pulling-down File menu and choose Print
Go back to the page and save the page into your disk as A:\music.htm
Print the page.
Display the page by opening the file you have saved on your disckette.
Go back to your homepage.
.........
Do the same as the above for the topic: "Small Business Development". Note: Use the Magellan search engine. Use the key words such as: "small business", "small business development", or others similar. Find two interesting pages for this and put them in the bookmark.
Delete all the URL (Pages) from the bookmark list.
Exit from Netscape.

What You'll Be Learning About Next...

Building your own WWW Pages

End of File: inter3.html July 12, 1996 Rich Holowczak


holowcza@cimic3.rutgers.edu