Unit 1: Online Environment
World Wide Web
What are the primary components of the World Wide Web?
| LBR110
is designed to make the distinction between the two
parts of the World Wide Web and to teach you how to
effectively find information using
search tools . The World Wide Web or WWW or Web is best
described as the online environment which operates on
the Internet, a network of
computers connected to each other . It is important to
understand the
distinction between the Internet - a collection of computers
and the World Wide Web
the graphical information/services operating on that
network. The Internet was created by scientists in the seventies
to facilitate information sharing , but the WWW has been
around only since 1994. The World Wide Web
is divided into two parts: the invisible
web and the visible web The
visible web is
what we hear about from the media - you know the place where
you can find anything -- just look it up on the web.
What most folks do not know is that the visible web,
information found by search engines makes up a very small part
of the information available on the entire World Wide Web. The
invisible web is said to be 500 times larger. |
|
| Invisible
Web
|
Web resources that
are not detected by search tools because they are dynamic
pages created in response to a user's question. Institutions have
created them internally or contracted with vendors to
limit access to current students, faculty, staff or patrons. These
databases usually include some full-text
magazines,
scholarly journals, newspapers, original data, and reference
materials. Examples
include InfoTrac, FirstSearch, ProQuest,
and Gale
Literature Resource Center.
Example: When you search a magazine database you query (ask) the database to find information about a particular topic. The results you see are pages created in response to your question. See the results for an InfoTrac search about the history of the Grand Canyon. |
| Visible
Web
|
Information that is
available on the Internet and detected by search tools. Web
searches contain information found on static web
pages stored in a search tool's database. Such pages are
published by individual's or organizations with access
to a server. Access to
the home page of a web site is usually unlimited, but access
to some information on the site may be restricted.
Example: Using Google and searching for information about the history of the Grand Canyon. |
|
database
- a large collection of information; can be web sites,
articles, books, etc. search tool - software created to retrieve web sites in response to user generated requests from an internal database of web sites collected by spidering software, indexed and ranked by relevancy or directories of web sites assembled, evaluated, and organized by people. Examples include About.com, Alta Vista, Excite, AlltheWeb, HotBot,Open Directory, and Yahoo. |
|
For
information contact jegan@nvcc.edu
Last revision August 22, 2002