Information Gathering and the Internet –
(FETAC Level 2 Internet Module)

 

A.  Types of Web Sites

 

Information Giving Web sites

These provide an opportunity for companies, educational organisations, voluntary organisations or even individuals to tell the world about the products or services they offer.  If you know the site address (or URL –Uniform Resource Locator) type it into the address bar of your browser and press the ENTER key. 

 

Try these sites:

www.rte.com, www.bbc.co.uk, www.ryanair.com, www.aer-lingus.com, www.cie.com, www.guardian.co.uk, www.irishhealth.com

 

Portal Sites

These offer a range of services such as (a) the latest news, (b)web based e mail that can be assessed from any computer in the world with Internet access and (c) products for sale.

 

Try these sites:

www.ireland.com (news and media), www.msn.com (Microsoft products and services), www.eircom.net (an Internet Service Provider)

 

 

Search Engines

These are special web sites that can be used to find sites on particular topics. These sites search the entire Internet for key words and return a list of sites having those words within seconds. You should become familiar with a particular search site and familiarise yourself with its tools.

 

Many regard www.google.com as the best of the search sites in 2002.

 

Keywords or phrases are entered into a SEARCH BOX that has a prominent location on the search engine site.

 

·        Put quotation marks around key phrases you want to find exactly as written.

·        Use Boolean OPERTORS such as AND, OR, NOT. +,-. 

AND and + means that the word placed after them must be on the page.

NOT or the – sign excludes a word that is entered after them.

Try these sites:

www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.doras.ie (Irish search site), www.altavista.com

 

Use keywords in any of the above mentioned search engines to find sites that provide information about:

(a)    Holidays in France

(b)    Hotels in London

(c)    Internet security

(d)    Designing web sites

(e)    Free images

(f)      Tourist facilities in Limerick

(g)    Tourist facilities in Kilmallock

B.  Methods of Gathering Information

1.     Saving the entire web page

File menu -- Save as.... -- Choose a location and give file a name --

Save as Type = Web page Complete option

 

The page is saved as a HTML file and its images are saved as separate image files (.gif or .jpeg). Other elements could be saved also as separate files e.g sound files.

 

2.     Saving the text only

File menu -- Save as.... Choose a location and give file a name--
Save as Type = Text only option

 

3.     Saving Images as files on your computer

Right click over the image --  Save Picture as... Choose a name and location.  The image can be accessed for editing by using image editing software (Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Editor).

 

4.      Copying text to another open document (e.g. to a Word document)

Select the text -- Right click and choose Copy. Click on other document on taskbar -- Choose Paste

 

5.      Copying Images to another open document (e.g. to a Word document)

Right click over the image --  Copy -- Click on other document on taskbar -- Choose Paste

 

6.     Bookmarking a web page

Once the page is up choose Favourites menu and Add to Favourites.  You can also create a folder for your favourite web pages.  This adds short cuts to web sites to your favourites menu.  This can also be accessed by clicking on the Favourites button. 

 

C.  Some Internet Options Available to You

1.     Changing your Start/Home Page

Get page up first.  Tools menu -- Internet options.... --  Home page section -- Click on Use current button or type in the web address

 

2.     Clearing Temporary Internet Files

Tools menu -- Internet options.... -- Temporary Internet Files section -- Click on Delete Files button.  If you do this it may take longer for recently visited sites to load on your next visit as no part of site will be stored on your PCs Temporary Internet Files folder.  All parts will have to be reloaded from the Internet server.

 

3.     Clearing History

Tools menu -- Internet options.... -- Home page section -- Click on Clear History button.  The drop down menu on the Address bar will now be blank.  Similarly the History button will not reveal sites visited.

 

Note that these methods do not completely clear all traces of your web browsing.  Use a search engine to find out about “cookies” which are also stored on your computer.