Task Two- In depth Tour of Browsers

Browsers, Browsers, everywhere!

 

What is a browser? A browser is an application that allows someone to access the Internet. It allows you to read the language of the Internet and "de-codes" it into English, Spanish, French, or any other language that you want.

In this lesson you will be looking at 4 different browsers:

1. Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is not the best browser in many ways, but it is the most compatible with the most websites. It's the most popular, so when people design websites, they make sure they work in Internet Explorer. When you launch Internet Explorer 5, the browser displays your home page. The following illustration shows Internet Explorer 5 with our home page open. Internet Explorer just release Internet Explorer 7, which has HUGE improvements and is a much better browser. It is not made for the Mac, though, as Microsoft stopped making


safari iconIII.Safari safari icon

Web pages use a language called HTML. We never see this language normally, unless you look for it. Your browser "de-codes" the HTML and puts in English, or whatever language you want. Your first activity is going to be to look at HTML source code and get a sample of what it looks like.

What does this "de-coding" process look like? Do activity one and find out:

Click here and do this ----->Searching Activity One: Web page code = html

What are the parts of Safari's Button Bar?

buttonbar

  • Button bar. This is here to provide you with quick access to the most used features of the browser.  You can hide the button bar by clicking the yellow button.   If your browser doesn't show all of them, you can add buttons (as you will in the next activity). You can do lots of things by adding buttons in your button bar. You can go back, go forward, go home, increase or decrease the size of text on a page, refresh, and add favorites.....to name a few.
  • Address bar. If you know the address of the page you want to visit, you can type it directly into the address text box. You can also search for pages using the address text box. For more information, see Searching the Web later on this page.
  • Favorites/ Bookmarks bar and Menu. You can save links to the Web pages you visit most frequently in Favorites, also called Bookmarks. This allows you to come back to this website at a later time. You can either drag the URL down to the Bookmarks Bar (located right under the address bar) or you can click on the plus sign and choose whether to put them in the bookmark menu or bookmark bar. Another way is to open up the bookmark menu and Add Page to Bookmarks, or just click on the little book, located in the Button Bar and that will open all the bookmarks, with their folders.

 

Searching the Web

Using search engines
Using a search engine is like using a database at your local library. You provide criteria for the search in the form of key words, and the search engine scans the Web for sites containing content relevant to your criteria, and returns a list of relevant Web sites to you. Major search engines, such as Google and many of the others we looked at in Finding a Needle, look on every searchable Web site for information related to your search criteria. Depending on your criteria, such search engines can return hundreds, or even thousands of sites for you to explore. To conduct a thorough search, you can use the Internet Explorer to go to a search engine and explore a topic. Examples of search engines are Google, Ask, Yahoo, Dogpile, Vivisimo, Mamma, Zoo, and many more.....
Exploring Web Sites
Finding web sites relevant to a topic is only the first step in the research process. Once your you have found the sites you want to use, you need to navigate through these sites and analyze the contents. You can use the Find feature in Internet Explorer to explore and assess the contents of a site.


Do This ----->Searching Activity Three- Favorites

To search for text on a Web page

You can use the Find command to search for a word or phrase on the page you're currently viewing.. Using Find, you can sort through large numbers of Web pages to locate the pages with the most relevant information. For example, if you have used Web Search to find pages related to the 13 Colonies, you can use Find to identify those pages that specifically address, for example, just Delaware.
  1. On the Edit menu, click Find
  2. In the Find text box, type the word or phrase you want to find.


  3. Click the address you want to search on.
  4. Click Find.
  5. To continue searching for the same text, click Find Again in the Edit menu. You will receive notification if the search term is not found.

Do This ----->Searching Activity Four- Using the Find feature

Collecting and Organizing Information from the Web

To collect data daily from a site, store the site address as a favorite. The site is always just a click away.

You are past the exploratory stage. You have identified the sites you want to use for your study, and now you need to learn the art of tracking source material on the Web. Using a combination of tools in Internet Explorer, you can collect and organize Web pages, pictures, addresses, and files from the Web in several ways:
  • To collect entire Web pages and pictures, which are called "clippings," use the Internet Explorer Scrapbook.
  • Use Favorites to collect the addresses to Web sites you visit frequently.
  • Use History to return to sites that you have visited, but not added to your Scrapbook or list of Favorites.
  • You can also download files from pages you visit by using the Download Manager feature. For more information about downloading, see Downloading files from a Web page later in this chapter.

Do This ----->Searching Activity Five- Changing the Toolbar


To access history

Save hard disk space and improve your computer's performance by reducing the number of sites stored in History. For instructions, see Internet Explorer Help.

In the throes of research, it is easy to lose track of all the sources consulted and cited. You can use Internet Explorer 5 History to retrace your research steps. For those times when you do not remember a site address and you did not save it in Favorites, you can find that page in the History pane. Your Web history is tied to your user profile and continues from one session to another, so you can see the Web sites you've visited each day from the day you began your research project.
  1. Open the History pane by clicking the History menu
  2. You will see a list of all the pages you have visited...
  3. Click the link to a Web page to revisit it.

Downloading files from a Web page

Occasionally, you may find files or pictures on the Web that you want to download to your computer. For example, you may discover a Microsoft Excel file containing data that you want to download so you can import it into a Microsoft Power Point presentation or a picture of a computer you would like to use in a word processing document. With many browsers, you can download multiple files at the same time, while simultaneously browsing the Web. If you are downloading the data, you can continue looking for more information related to your studies. This is especially helpful when you have a slow Internet connection and would like to continue browsing while you are waiting for a download. Some Web pages have a (Click to download) button or link that you can use to download a file. If that is not an option, you can download a file in Safari by using one of two methods.
  • Follow a link on a Web page. Point to the link and Control-Click on it, and then select Download Link to Disk from the contextual menu (dragging the picture from the website onto your desktop also works well)
  • Type the file address. In the Address text box, type the address of the file you want to download, and then press OPTION+RETURN.
  • If your file did not download with either of the two methods above, click Download Manager from the Tools menu and double-click the file name. In the Status area, Internet Explorer reports any errors it encountered while downloading the file.

Do This ----->Downloading - Activity Eight

Google Search tool

My favorite feature of Safari is the google search tool in the upper right-hand corner of the window. Instead of typing in www.google.com, you just have to go to the this empty field in the corner of your browser. Pretty slick, huh?

Do This ----->Safari google search- Activity Nine

Snap back

Now that you've used the google search tool, you will notice there's an orange circle in the google search tool with a swirly arrow. This is called the Snap-back feature. It will return you to your orginal search and display the original results.

Safari bookmarks

Safari organizes your booksmarks in an organized fashion. Click on the little book and see how the bookmarks are organized.

Tab Browsing

Tab browsing is a great way to browse the Internet. Especially if you like to multi-task! You can use tabs in any browser. In Safari, go to Preferences and click on Tabs and check Enable Tab Browsing. Once you've done this, do the activity below.

Do This -----> Activity Ten- Tab Browsing

Mozilla and Firefox

Ok, you're almost done.

One more simple activity. Are you getting the messege that a browser is just a program that allows you to connect to the Internet. Different programs do slightly different things, but a browser is a browser. It allows you to...well... BROWSE the Internet. Gee, that's brillant. I wonder how they came up with that name! : )

Mozilla is the last one we will be looking at and exploring. It is very similar to Netscape Navigator, actually they are identical in how they are created.

Do This Final Activity----->Activity Eleven - The Mozilla Browser and Firefox

 

 

Internet 101
Task One - Partner/Individual
Task Two - Partner/Individual
Task Three - Individual
Task Four - Pick One Partner/Individual
  1. Journey Inside the Internet
  2. The Web At-a-Glance
  3. Navigating the Browser
  4. What was that again?
  5. Good Netizens
  1. Browsers, Browsers, Everywhere!
  2. Finding a Needle
  1. Internet Drivers License Test
  1. I Need A Vacation

Internet 101 Worksheets - Use only if you don't have a printed copy from Mr. Hurt
or your are printing them from home. 

You will need Acrobat Reader to view them.

Click here for the PDF of all the handouts for this Unit (PDF)