Are you taking advantage of all the services and information available on the Internet? Watch this episode to learn about some you may not know about. We'll also give you tips on how to determine if what you are seeing online is real.
Guests
Justin Steen
Justin Steen
Justin Steen is a Web programmer in the University of Minnesota's Office of Information Technology. He also develops and teaches computer short courses and provides technical support to the University community. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science.
Janel Anderson
Janel Anderson
Janel Anderson is a faculty member in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota. She teaches courses, consults, and conducts research on communication and technology isssues within organizations, focusing primarily on Web-based resources and collaboration across space and time. Dr. Anderson's work has appeared in several books about virtual teams and Web-based collaboration.
For Your Files
Technical support specialist Justin Steen identified Google as one of the most popular search engines and defined what a search engine is:
"A search engine is basically a huge database of millions, even billions, of Web pages that are out there on the Internet. Just like you would flip to the back of a book to find [in the index] a particular word or phrase [and] it would tell you which page of the book to look on, you go to a search engine online, type in the words or phrases that you're looking for, and it will give you a list of Web sites that pertain to that topic or to that word."
Steen showed us how to use tabbed browsing to increase our efficiency on the Internet. He said:
"Tabbed browsing, which other non-Internet Explorer browsers do, . . . [enables] you to open multiple Web sites in one window under a different tab."
The Internet is huge with millions of voices providing bites of information. So how do you know what's real? This is the general guideline technology and communication Professor Janel Anderson gave:
"One rule of thumb is to just trust your gut. If it sounds unbelievable [there's] a good chance it is unbelievable."
More specifically, Professor Anderson said to check the address or the URL of the Web site:
"If it ends in a .gov or .mil for military or government [sites], [or] .us for anything by the United States government that's not government or military, or .ca for Canada or [one of] the other country codes, and so on, then you know it's put out by a government and you have at least that measure of reliability. Also educational institutions use a .edu so you can be quite assured that the things you're finding there are legitimate. When we get into the .com, the .net, the .biz, and even the .org [ones], anybody can get a URL that ends in those extensions."
Or, she said there are sites on the Web by people who look for and report hoaxes:
"One of those would be urbanlegends.about.com, [which is] part of the about.com network. And another one is consumerwebwatch.org and that is [by] the same organization that brings us the print publication Consumer Reports."
Links
Justin mentioned the following Web sites:
- Download FireFox from http://www.mozilla.org.
- The most popular search engine is http://www.google.com.
- Justin's favorite site is a technical information one: http://slashdot.org.
The http://netsmartz.org site was featured on screen and the U.S. Living Will Registry was mentioned.
Janel Anderson discussed the following Web sites:
- Check urbanlegends.about.com and consumerwebwatch.org to see if a Web site is a hoax.
- Check http://www.meetup.com to find other people who share your particular interests.
- Janel's favorite site is a kitchen remodeling site: http://www.millspride.com.
Browser
Software that enables you to view World Wide Web pages.
Bulletin Board
An application that enables people to share messages or other files with other people on a network. You can think of them as support networks for people interested in certain topics.
Pop-up Blocking
A feature of some Web browsers that stops new browser windows from appearing when you visit certain Web pages.
Search Engine
An Internet software program that searches a database and gathers and reports information that is related to certain content. It is basically a huge database of millions, even billions, of Web pages that are out the on the Internet.
Tabbed Browsing
A feature of some Web browsers that enables you to open multiple Web sites in one window under a different tab in that window. You might want to use it to examine one of the pages linked from the original Web page in its own window, but still keep up that original page.
URL
The address of a Web site. If it ends with .gov or .mil, the site is published by the U.S. government. If it ends with .ca, it is published by the Canadian government, and there are codes for other countries too. If it ends in .edu, the page is published by an educational institution. If it ends in .com, .net, or .org, the page could be published by anyone.