The Internet

1
The Internet the Web

• A presentation for L SC 111, New Mexico State
  University
• Spring Semester 2002
• Created by Kate Manuel (kmanuel_at_lib.nmsu.edu).
• You are welcome to link to this site, or to print
  out a copy for personal use. Please do not make
  an electronic copy and load it locally with or
  without modifications.

2
True or False?

• The Internet and the Web are the same thing.

3
FALSE.

• The Internet is something much bigger than the
  Web.
• The Internet is an international network of
  interconnected computers.

• The Web is simply the hypertext portion of the
  Internet.
• That part of the Internet where people can move
  from resource to resource by following links.
• The Internet consists of the Web, usenet, ftp,
  and more.
• Usenet alone is 4 times bigger then the Web.

4
True or False?

• The Web was invented in 1990 at CERN the
  European Organization for Nuclear Research in
  Geneva, Switzerland in order to facilitate
  document sharing by scientists.

5
TRUE.

• The Internet is older than the Web. It went
  online in 1969.
• The Internet relies upon packet switching.
• Chopping up information into segments that can
  take various routes to its destination(s), where
  it is reassembled into a whole.
• Its original purpose was to provide for
  defense-related communications in the event that
  regular communications were disrupted by nuclear
  war.

6
True or False?

• All material on the Web can be found by using
  search engines like Google and AltaVista.

7
FALSE.

• Invisible Web those parts of the Web that are
  hard or impossible to find with search engines.
• Estimates are that the Invisible Web is 500 times
  bigger than the Web.
• Dark Web the portion of the Web completely
  inaccessible by Web browser and search engine
  alike 5 of the Web
• Mapping the Dark Net. (2002). Available at
  http//searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd0124-d
  arknet.html.

8
True or False?

• The robot exclusion standard allows a Web pages
  creator to keep search engines from indexing it.

9
TRUE.

• A pages creator can add some code to it that
  prevents search engines from indexing it.
• Robot Exclusion Protocol, Ftrain. (23 February
  2002). Available at http//ftrain.com/robot_exclus
  ion_protocol.html.
• This is why you dont find some pages when
  searching for them, but can go directly to them
  if you know their URL.
• A number of academic institutions do this to
  reduce traffic on their servers.

10
True or False?

• It makes no difference what search engine you
  use. With the same search term(s), you will get
  the same results with different search engines.

11
FALSE.

• Different search engines index different Web
  pages in different ways and thus give different
  results to the same search.
• Unfortunately, 20 of Web users give up when they
  do not find what they are looking for with one
  search engine rather than trying another search
  tool.
• RealNames Survey Press Release. (2000). Available
  at http//www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.
  cgi?day1/201520261ticker

12
True or False?

• There is no difference between material on the
  Web and material made available via the Web.

13
FALSE.

• On the Web refers to the free resources that
  individuals or organizations can post on the Web.
  
• Anyone can get access to the things on the Web.

• Via the Web refers to non-free information
  resources that can be accessed over the Web.
• Only those who have paid can get access to these
  resources.
• This is why you must validate into the Librarys
  databases when accessing them from off campus.

14
True or False?

• Everything available via the Web is free.

15
False.

• Many things delivered to you via the Web cost
  money, even if you are not the one paying for
  them.
• E.g., Library databases
• Some search engines even sell access to things.

16
True or False?

• When you search the Web, you are not searching
  the Web as it now exists in real time you are
  searching the Web as it existed when your search
  engine last indexed it perhaps weeks or even
  months ago.

17
TRUE.

• Many search engines update their indexing only
  once a month some even less often.
• Meaning that you often cant find information on
  recent events by searching with search engines
  you need to go directly to news sites on the Web
  instead.

18
True or False?

• Google, the largest of the search engines, covers
  less than half of the indexable content on the
  Web.

19
TRUE.

• As of the end of September 2002, Google indexed
  2.5 billion Web pages plus another 330 million
  image files and 700 million Usenet postings.
• Danny Sullivan. Search Engine Report. (7 January
  2002).
• A lot of pages but less than ½ of what is on
  the Web.
• Steve Lawrence Lee Giles. Accessibility and
  Distribution of Information on the Web. (2001).
  Available at http//www.wwwmetrics.com/.
• And remember less than 5 of recorded human
  information is on the Web anyway!

20
True or False?

• Subject directories are Web search tools that
  reply on content supplied by human indexers.

21
TRUE.

• Subject directories differ from search engines in
  two important respects
• Human beings have, at least, reviewed sites for
  inclusion in the directory
• Can be browsed by subject categories as well as
  searched.

22
Subject Directories

• Examples include
• Yahoo!
• InfoMine
• Open Directory
• Etc.

23
True or False?

• Metasearch engines allow you to search several
  engines at one time, but with a loss of search
  capabilities and precision.

24
TRUE.With metasearch engines

• Spiders/robots process searches through multiple
  search engines at once
• Take advantage of different pages that
  different search engines index
• Expand number/range of resources retrieved

• - Individual search engines have idiosyncratic
  search commands that do not translate to
  metasearch engines
• - Some loss of precision in searching

25
Metasearch engines

• Dogpile searches over 20 search engines and
  directories
• Including Yahoo!, Lycos, GoTo.com, InfoSeek,
  Excite, RealNames, Open Directory, Direct Hit,
  About.com, Look Smart, AltaVista, and more
• Results are generally grouped not by relevance
  calculations but by which search engine found
  which result(s)

26
True or False?

• 83 of all Web sites are commercial.

27
TRUE.

• 6 of Web sites contain scientific or educational
  content.
• Despite what people think, only 1.5 of sites
  contain pornographic content.
• Steve Lawrence Lee Giles. Accessibility and
  Distribution of Information on the Web. (2001).
  Available at http//www.wwwmetrics.com/.

28
True or False?

• 73 of all Web sites are in English

29
TRUE.

• German is the second most common language on the
  Web.
• Pandia. On the Size of the World Wide Web.
  Available at http//www.pandia.com/sw-2001/57-webs
  ize.html.

30
True or False?

• The most commonly used search word on the Web is
  sex.

31
TRUE.

• The second most common Web search word is free.
  Then come movies, software, and entertainment.
• Crosslinkz.com. (2002). Available at
  http//www.crosslinkz.com.
• All this suggests that although the Web does have
  some valuable academic content, its primary
  function is NOT as an academic research tool.

32
True or False?

• You can catch a computer virus from search
  results given by Google.

33
TRUE.

• People can post word documents on the Web, and
  Google recently began indexing such Word
  documents.
• Computer viruses do spread through Word
  documents, so be sure to use the View as HTML
  option.

34
True or False?

• Out of every 20 search results you get with
  Excite (a search engine), 15 of them may be the
  result of paid inclusion/placement.

35
TRUE. -Danny Sullivan. Search Engine Report. (7
January 2002).

• Many people assume that search engines give the
  best results first.
• In reality, search engines list results based on
  
• relevancy calculations and/or
• paid inclusion
• Meaning that if the creator of a page pays the
  search engine money, a particular page will be at
  least listed in (often, listed highly in) the
  results of any relevant search.

36
True or False?

• AskJeeves gives correct answers only 16-17 of
  the time.

37
TRUE.

• AskJeeves doesnt really give answers anyway.
  It points to Web pages that might give
  information on keywords in the question you
  asked.
• Unfortunately, many of these Web pages prove
  UNABLE to supply the needed information sought.

38
True or False?

• Over 71 of people say they get frustrated while
  searching the Web.

39
TRUE.

• Web searching isnt all that easy especially if
  you are concerned about the quality of the
  resources you find.
• And, frustration sets in for most people after 15
  minutes of searching without finding.
• David Lake. Engines Idling Roughly, The
  Standard (9 February 2001).

40
True or False?

• All Web content is reviewed for quality by the
  Central Internet Authority prior to its posting.

41
FALSE.

• Anyone can create Web pages.
• No one reviews pages posted on the Web to see
  that they
• contain accurate information.
• are up-to-date.
• contribute in any way to human understanding.

42
True or False?

• Content can be pulled from the Web at any time
  often with no trace of its existence left behind.
  

43
TRUE.

• The creator of a Web page can pull the page from
  the Web at any time often with no record left
  of the resources existence or content.
• The federal and various state governments have
  pulled lots of content from the Web since 11
  September 2001.
• The dot-com meltdown of Fall 2001 resulted in
  12 of Web users more than 13 million people
  reporting that favorite Web sites had
  disappeared.