Chapter 3 - Internet

Technologyin Action

Alan Evans • Kendall Martin

Mary Anne Poatsy

Tenth Edition

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall


Technology in Action

Chapter 3

Using the Internet:

Making the Most of the Web’s Resources

Chapter Topics

• The Internet and How It Works

• Communicating and Collaborating on the Web

• Web Entertainment

• Conducting Business over the Internet:E-Commerce

• Accessing and Moving around the Web

• Searching the Web EffectivelyCopyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 3

The Internet and How it Works

• Internet is a network of networks connecting billions of computers globally

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 4

The Internet and How it WorksThe Origin of the Internet

• Developed while U.S. was in midst of Cold War with Soviet Union

• Created to respond to two concerns– Establishing a secure form of military

communications

– Creating a means by which all computers could communicate


The Internet and How it WorksThe Origin of the Internet

• Evolved from Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)– Vinton Cerf– Robert Kahn

• First communication occurred in 1969• World Wide Web is subset of the Internet

– Common protocols enable computers to talk to each other

– Special links enable navigationCopyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6

The Internet and How it WorksHow the Internet Works

• Web browser – software that lets you display and interact with text and other media on the web

• Computer connected to the Internet acts in one of two ways– Client is computer that asks for data– Server receives the request and returns data

to the client– Client/server network


The Internet and How it WorksHow the Internet Works

• Requests travel along transmission lines– Similar to highway system of roads– Some are faster then others– Internet backbones: Transmission lines with

faster speeds


The Internet and How it WorksHow the Internet Works (cont.)

• Internet Protocol (IP) address– How computers connected to the Internet

identify each other

– Websites are assigned unique IP addresses

– Text versions of IP addresses are used because IP addresses are hard to remember


Communicating and Collaborating on the Web

• Web 2.0– Social web

– Allows users to collaborate• Social media

– Google Docs, Facebook, Yelp, YouTube, Pinterest

– Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and webcasts



Social Networking

• Means by which people use the Internet to communicate and share information– Facebook

– Twitter

• Networking in business community– Finding and filling job positions

– LinkedIn is business-oriented network

– Marketing and communicating with customersCopyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 11


Social Networking (cont.)

• Privacy concerns – When social networking first became popular

there was concern over privacy

– Most sites have improved privacy protections, reducing concern but not eliminating it




• Privacy concerns (cont.) – Precautions to consider

• Keep personal information personal

• Know who your friends are

• Do not post information like favorite teacher often used as security question to verify identity

• Use caution when posting images




• Employers and colleges use social networks to check out potential applicants

• People have been fired or expelled for using social media in a questionable way




• Questionable content includes– Negative comments about poster’s job,

employer, or colleagues

– Inappropriate content about the poster

• Responsibility for your content rests with you




E-mail

• E-mail is still primary the means of communication on the Internet

• E-mail: Written message sent or received over the Internet

• Asynchronous

• Convenient

• E-mails really are not private



E-mail (cont.)

• E-mail etiquette– Be concise and to the point

– Use spell-check

– Avoid texting abbreviations

– Include meaningful subject line

– Include signature line with basic contact or corporate information

– Include only people who need to receive it



E-mail (cont.)

• Two different types of e-mail systems– Web-based e-mail client

• Accessible from any device that can access the Internet

• Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, or Gmail

– E-mail client• Accessible only from computer on which e-mail

client software is installed• Microsoft Outlook

– Both systems can be used together



Instant Messaging (IM)

• Programs to communicate in real time over the Internet– Casual conversations between friends– Businesses use for quick and instant

communication– Some provide video chat with webcam

• Proprietary IM services: AIM, Google Chat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger



Instant Messaging (IM)

• Facebook chat with “friends”

• Universal chat services: Trillian, Digsby

• Web-based universal chat service: Meebo



Wikis

• A Wiki is a website that allows users to change content

• Wikipedia uses wiki technology so content can be updated continually

• Google Docs has wiki-like features



Wikis (cont.)

• Wikipedia is not a good source for research papers– Users might add

erroneous content

– Tighter controls are being implemented



Blogs

• A blog (short for weblog) is a personal log or journal posted on the Web– Single author

– Arranged as entries on single page

– Most recent entry on top

• A video log (vlog) is a personal journal that uses video as primary content



Blogs (cont.)

• Sites offering free blog hosting– Blogger

– Wordpress

• Blog popularity has created a problem– Splogs



Podcasts and Webcasts

• A podcast is a series of audio or video files distributed over the Internet– Files that come to you through syndication

– Podcasts are available on a wide variety of topics and content



Podcasts and Webcasts (cont.)

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) – podcasts use RSS to deliver content

• Aggregator – locates all the subscribed RSS series and downloads new content



Podcasts and Webcasts (cont.)

• A webcast is the broadcast of audio or video content over the Internet– Live or one-time events

– Continuously feeds audio and video content

– Facilitates viewing and downloading of large audio and video files.

– Can be interactive, inviting audience response


Web Entertainment

• Web entertainment includes– Streaming audio and

video– Internet radio– MP3s– Interactive gaming– Smart TV


Web Entertainment (cont.)

• Multimedia is anything that involves one or more forms of media in addition to text– Graphics– Audio files– Video files



• Streaming audio: Continuously feeds an audio file to your browser

• Streaming video: Continuously feeds a video file to your browser

• Do not have to wait to download entire file

• Netflix and video on demand from your cable provider



• Plug-in (or player): Special program often needed to view or hear some multimedia files

• Many plug-ins are preinstalled

• Can download the plug-in free of charge

• Update your plug-ins frequently



• Cache: Temporary storage place

• To keep system running efficiently– Delete temporary Internet cache regularly

– Click Refresh or F5 key to ensure most recent website content is displayed

– Clear your Internet cache manually


Conducting Business over the Internet: E-Commerce

• E-commerce or electronic commerce is the process of conducting business online– Business-to-consumer (B2C)

• Purchases consumers make at online stores

– Business-to-business (B2B)• Businesses buying and selling to other businesses

– Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)• Consumers selling to each other

• eBay, Freecycle, Craigslist



• Social commerce - e-commerce subset using social networks to assist in marketing and purchasing products.



E-Commerce Safeguards

• Businesses must have some form of security certification to give customers a level of comfort

• Look for visual indicators a website is secure: URL changes from “http://” to “https://” – with the “s” standing for secure socket layer

• Shop at well-known, reputable sites



E-Commerce Safeguards

• Pay by credit card

• Check the return policy

• Avoid public computers for online transactions


Accessing and Moving around the WebWeb Browsers

• Web browser is software installed on your computer that allows you to locate, view, and navigate the web

• Graphical browsers display – Text

– Pictures

– Sound

– Video


Accessing and Moving around the WebWeb Browsers (cont.)

• Web browser features– Tabbed browsing– Pinned tabs– Tear-off tabs– Thumbnail previews– Tab isolation


Accessing and Moving around the WebWeb Browsers (cont.)

• Web browser features (cont.)– Combined search and address bar– SmartScreen filter– Privacy browsing– Add-ons– Session restore


Accessing and Moving around the WebURLs, Protocols, and Domain Names

• Every web site has a unique address– Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• URLs have several parts that help identify the web document– The protocol

– The domain name

– The path or subdirectory


Accessing and Moving around the WebURLs, Protocols, and Domain Names (cont.)

• HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol– Web server – computer that hosts the website

– The most common protocol

– Part of Internet protocol suite• File Transfer Protocol (FTP): Part of Internet

Protocol suite

• BitTorrent – protocol used to transfer files using a peer-to-peer networking system



• Domain name identifies the site’s host

• Top-level domain: The suffix after the dot

• Each country has own top-level domain– Further divisions can be made for regions or

states



• When URL is domain name: Requesting site’s home page

• File or path: Information after forward slash following domain name


Accessing and Moving around the WebHyperlinks and Beyond

• Hyperlink is specially coded element

• Clicking on hyperlink lets you jump to another location– Breadcrumb trail

– Back and Forward buttons

– Recently visited sites

– History list


Accessing and Moving around the WebHyperlinks and Beyond (cont.)


Accessing and Moving around the WebFavorites, Live Bookmarks, and Tagging

• Favorites feature place marker of site’s URL on list on browser’s toolbar– Favorites (Internet Explorer and Safari)

– Bookmarks (Firefox and Google Chrome)

• Live bookmark feature (Firefox)– Provides up-to-date information using RSS


Accessing and Moving around the WebFavorites, Live Bookmarks, and Tagging (cont.)

• Social bookmarking or tagging– Store, organize, and manage bookmarks– Keyword or term assigned to web page,

digital image, or video– Delicious, Digg, and Reddit


Dig Deeper

Discovering the Semantic Web

• Semantic web (Web 3.0): Evolving extension of the web – Data is defined to be easily processed by

computers

• Beginning to emerge in technologies such as Siri

Searching the Web Effectively

• Narrow down the vast quantity of web information by using– Search engine: A set of programs that

searches the web for keywords (specific works you wish to look for or query)

– Subject directory: A structured outline of websites organized by topics

– Metasearch engine: Searches other search engines rather than individual websites


Searching the Web EffectivelyUsing Search Engines Effectively

• Search engines have three components– Spider constantly collects data on the web

– Indexer program organizes the data into large database

– Search engine software searches indexed data, pulling out relevant information

• Resulting list appears in your web browser as list of hits



Searching the Web EffectivelyUsing Search Engines Effectively (cont.)

• Search engines use unique formulas to formulate searches and create results

• Search engines also differ in which sites they search

• Search engines also let you search for images and audio and video files



• Boolean operators - words such as AND, NOT, and OR that describe the relationships between the keywords in a search

• Initially were used to refine searches

• Today advanced search pages are available



• Additional strategies for refining searches with key phrases– Place quotation marks around keywords to

search for exact phrase

– Search within a specific site

– Use a wild card



• Other specialty search strategies and services– “More” hyperlink in Google

– “Even More” option in Google• Scholar

• Custom Search

• Product Search

• Alerts

Searching the Web EffectivelyEvaluating Websites

• Before using an Internet resource, consider– Authority– Bias– Relevance– Audience– Links

• These factors will help decide if a website is a good source of information



Chapter 3 Summary Questions

1. What is the origin of the Internet?


2. How does data travel on the Internet?



3. How can I communicate and collaborate with others using Web 2.0 technologies?



4. How can I communicate with others using e-mail and instant messaging?



5. What multimedia files are found on the web, and what software is needed to access those files?



6. What is e-commerce, and what online safeguards are available?



7. What is a web browser, and what are a URL and its parts?



8. How can I use hyperlinks and other tools to get around the web?



9. How do I search the Internet effectively, and how can I evaluate websites?


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