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Chapter 1 Navigating and Searching the Web Since so many people create web pages, the Web should be chaotic. However, underlying systems are in

place specifying how pages are organized on the Web and how they are delivered to your computer. This

system involves unique addresses used to access each web page, a unique address for each computer, and

browser features for locating and retrieving online content.

IPs and URLs An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that uniquely identifies a location on the Internet. An

IP address consists of four groups of numbers separated by periods; for example: 225.73.110.102. A

nonprofit organization called ICANN keeps track of IP numbers around the world.

Because numbers would be difficult to remember for retrieving pages, we use a text-based address referred

to as a uniform resource locator (URL) to go to a website. A URL, also called a web address, has several parts

separated by a colon (:), slashes (/), and dots (.). The first part of a URL is called a protocol and identifies a

certain way for interpreting computer information in the transmission process. Http, which stands for

hypertext transfer protocol, and ftp, for file transfer protocol, are examples of protocols. Some sites use a

secondary identifier for the type of site being contacted, such as www for World Wide Web site, but this is

often optional.

The next part of the URL is the domain name, which identifies the group of servers (the domain) to which the

site belongs and the particular company or organization name. A suffix, such as .com or .edu, further

identifies the domain. For example, the .com in the URL http://www.emcp.com is a top-level domain (TLD).

Several TLDs exists such as .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov. Table 1.1 provides a rundown of TLDs being used

today.

Table 1.1 Common Top-Level Domain Suffixes Used in URLs

Suffix Type of Organization Example

.biz business site Billboard: http://www.billboard.biz

.com company or commercial

institution

Intel: http://www.intel.com

.edu educational institution Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu

.gov government site Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov

.int international organizations

endorsed by treaty

World Health Organization: http://www.who.int

.mil military site U.S. Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil

.net administrative site for ISPs Earthlink: http://www.earthlink.net

.org nonprofit or private

organization

Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org

Browsing Web Pages You may already be quite comfortable with browsing the Internet, but you may not have pondered how

browsers move around the Web and retrieve data. Any element of a web page (text, graphic, audio, or video)

can be linked to another page using a hyperlink. A hyperlink describes a destination within a web document

and can be inserted in text or a graphical object such as a company logo. Text that is linked is called

hypertext.

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Chapter 2 Online Content Calculating exactly how many websites and web pages exist today is difficult but information from the

Netcraft Secure Server Survey in 2009 indicated an increase of over six million websites just between March

and April of that year. With that kind of constant activity, it is logical to conclude that not all of the content

that is online is of the same quality or accuracy. In addition, some of that content is free for the taking, while

other content is protected by copyright, or legal ownership of that content. Learning how to evaluate the

quality of content, respect laws that govern use of content, and understanding when free exchange of

content is allowed is important.

Evaluating Web Content Though a wealth of accurate and useful information exists online, some people believe that if they read it in

the newspaper or online, it must be true. That, however, is not the case. As in the offline world, you have to

consider the source of online content. If you trust technology information from Wired magazine in print, you

can have a similar level of trust in their online site. If you do not know a source at all, you may have to do

some digging to discover if it is reputable by looking at the source’s credentials (which individuals or

organizations are involved in the venture?), methods (for example, is the information based on surveys and

experiment, or personal opinion?), and reputation (what do other online users say in reviews of the site or

the company’s products?).

Because anyone can publish to the Web, to gauge the accuracy of what you read, you have to verify the three

Ws (or WWW) of online content.

• WHO is the author or publisher? Is the source credible?

• WHAT is the message? Is the information verifiable? Is there a possibility of bias? Always try to

crosscheck the information with other sources. Look for sponsors of a site to determine if they have

a bias.

• WHEN was this published? Is this information current? If no date is published, is it possible to figure

out how current the information is from the text? Online information can stay put for a very long

time. Always look for the most current information on any topic.

Intellectual Property Some information or works online are placed there to be shared and passed on. Other content falls into the

category of intellectual property, much of which is copyrighted. According to the World Intellectual Property

Organization (WIPO), intellectual property refers to “the creations of the mind; inventions, literary and

artistic works; and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.” Copying or distributing

intellectual property without appropriate permission is illegal.

The Internet has brought the issue of illegal treatment of intellectual property front and center. Because

copying and pasting content online is so simple, many people who would never dream of stealing a CD from a

music store or a book from a bookstore download music illegally or plagiarize by using text or images from a

website and representing that content as their own work.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs, such as BearShare, are used by millions of people to share music,

video, and other types of files. File sharing allows people to download content from another user’s hard

drive. This type of sharing is ripe for copyright abuse because materials that might be downloaded from a

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Chapter 3 E-Commerce Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, involves using the Internet to transact business. When you are buying

downloadable music, shopping for shoes, or paying to access your credit report, for example, you are

involved in e-commerce.

Three main types of e-commerce describe how money flows in an online business. Money can flow from

business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C). Sometimes more

than one of these models occurs on a single site (for example, when a consumer on eBay buys a product from

another consumer (C2C), but eBay makes money from advertisers (B2B).

B2C E-Commerce Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is probably the kind with which you are most familiar. It involves

companies that sell products and services to individual consumers, such as Amazon.com, JustHost.com

(website hosting service), and Zappos.com. This is the model that most resembles those stores in the mall

that you go to when purchasing books, obtaining tax return help, or finding shoes.

B2B E-Commerce Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce involves businesses selling to businesses. In some cases, a business

provides supplies or services to another business, such as a plumbing supply site that caters to building

contractors. In another B2B model, businesses provide a service to consumers but do not charge those

consumers directly. Instead, their business model involves making money from selling ad space to

advertisers, or selling information about their customers to advertisers. Given that e-commerce models are

defined by how money flows, Facebook is an example of this second kind of B2B site because it gets no

money from its members, only from advertisers (or other businesses).

C2C E-Commerce Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce activity occurs on sites such as Craigslist or eBay where

consumers buy and sell items from each other over the Internet. Though the host site provides the

infrastructure, the money flows from one consumer to another. What e-commerce model do you think

supports the companies that host C2C sites? If you guessed B2B (they get their money from advertisers) you

would be right!

E-Commerce and Consumer Safety In many cases, buying and selling items online is safer than doing so offline. That’s because rather than

handing your credit card to a clerk in a store, you are performing a transaction over a secure connection,

providing payment information to a system rather than an individual. Of course, every system has its

problems, and online stores, banks, and investment sites are hacked into now and then. Still, if you use care

in choosing trusted shopping sites, pay by a third-party payment service such as PayPal or by credit card

(these purchases are protected from theft, while a check or debit card purchase is not), and make sure that

while performing a transaction the URL prefix reads https (which indicates a secure connection), you can be

confident that you will have a safe shopping experience.