Q.

Web Search Tools: Here Are the Basics

Web & Search
 Search Engines

 Best of the Web

 Safety & Privacy

 Running a Website

Search tools help you browse the web. If you're just getting started using the web,
it can definitely get overwhelming as you understand just how much information
there is out there. You know that you're connected to the internet, but what's next?
How do you actually find things online?

There are three basic search tools you should know about as you begin your web
searches:

 Search engines
 Web directories
 Metasearch tools

None of these search tools let you search the entire web because there isn't a
single catalog of the entire web; none of these search tools are capable of doing
so. However, you can still use these web search tools to scour various parts of the
web and find specific types of information.

You need a web browser on your computer or mobile device before you can use
these search tools. The one you're using now is probably just fine, but see our
picks for the best internet browsers for other options.

Search Online With a Search Engine

A search engine is usually the preferred way to browse the web. It's a tool that
crawls the web to find new web pages to index, and the search bar provided by the
search engine is your way to peek inside the index and quickly find things online.

Most search engines work by having you enter text into a search box. Google
Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo Search are a few examples, but there
are plenty of other search engines to pick from.

What makes a general search engine so useful is that when you run a search,
you're looking for all kinds of information. You're not restricted to just images,
videos, web pages, sounds, etc. A simple search will find all of those things and
more, and it takes only a second or two to get the results.

However, there are also specialized search engines that can be used to find really
specific things while at the same time filtering out all the unnecessary results that
you aren't looking for. Once you know which search engine you should use, you
might decide on an image search engine, for example, or a people search engine.

How to Find Niche Content With These Search Engines

Web Directories Are Another Online Tool

Subject/web directories are another kind of search tool you can use to find things
on the web. They're kind of like search engines because they catalog web-based
information, but they're much different from a normal search engine because
they're really just handmade lists.

Instead of providing a search box that lets you scour large parts of the web, a web
directory is a list of categories that you can click through to find web pages curated
by a real person (versus a software program that a search engine uses).

Alive Web Directory, Best of the Web, and Hotfrog are a few examples.

You might use a web directory if you're looking for something really specific. For
example, if you want the best chat room sites on the web, you could use a search
engine to find nearly all of them, or you could trust a web directory provider to find
the best ones for you. When you visit the web directory, you're browsing just the
chat rooms sites that they've vetted and listed on their website.

Web directories are usually not as cluttered as a search engine, so if you're looking
for a search tool that's relatively easy to use but can still be useful for finding
websites, use a trusted subject directory.

The 40 Most Useful Sites on the Web

Search the Web With a Metasearch Engine

Metasearch engines get their results from another search engine, sometimes
several at once. When your search tool is a metasearch engine, you're getting the
best hits for your keywords from each search engine, all at once.

Dogpile is one example of a metasearch engine for finding web pages, images,
videos, and more. If you're looking for torrents, a search tool like Torrentz can
search across dozens of torrent sites at once.
Metasearch tools are a good place to start for very broad results, but don't usually
give the same quality results as using each search engine and directory
individually.

Other Search Tools

The idea of a web search tool is really broad, so the three mentioned above aren't
the only forms. They're great for beginners and almost everyone else, but there are
other ways to search the web that might come into play if those basic search tools
aren't enough.

For example, you might need to search the invisible web, in which case you can
use invisible web search tools. There are also advanced search options built-in to
many search engines that let you narrow down your searches. Bookmarking
tools and RSS feeds are other ways to use the web.

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Q. Website

A website[1] or web site[2] is a collection of related network web resources, such

as web pages, multimedia content, which are typically identified with a
common domain name, and published on at least one web server. Notable
examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com.
Websites can be accessed via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as
the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by a uniform resource
locator (URL) that identifies the site.
Websites can have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website
can be a personal website, a corporate website for a company, a government
website, an organization website, etc. Websites are typically dedicated to a
particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment and social networking to
providing news and education. All publicly accessible websites collectively
constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites, such as a company's
website for its employees, are typically part of an intranet.
Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically
composed in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other
websites with suitable markup anchors. Web pages are accessed and transported
with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ
encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user. The
user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its
HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.
Hyperlinking between web pages conveys to the reader the site structure and
guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page containing a
directory of the site web content. Some websites require user registration
or subscription to access content. Examples of subscription websites include many
business sites, news websites, academic journal websites, gaming websites, file-
sharing websites, message boards, web-based email, social networking websites,
websites providing real-time stock market data, as well as sites providing various
other services. End users can access websites on a range of devices,
including desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones and smart
TVs.
2.
Definition - What does Website mean?
A website is a collection of publicly accessible, interlinked Web pages that share a
single domain name. Websites can be created and maintained by an individual,
group, business or organization to serve a variety of purposes. Together, all
publicly accessible websites constitute the World Wide Web.
A website is also known as a web presence.

Techopedia explains Website
Websites come in a nearly endless variety, including educational sites, news sites,
porn sites, forums, social media sites, e-commerce sites, and so on. The pages
within a website are usually a mix of text and other media. That said, there are no
rules dictating the form of a website. A person could create a website of nothing but
black and white photos of roses, or the word "cat" linked to another Web page with
the word "mouse." However, many sites follow a standard pattern of a homepage
that links off to other categories and content within the website. Originally, websites
were categorized by their top-level domains. Some examples include: Government
agency websites = .gov Educational institutions’ websites = .edu Nonprofit
organizations’ websites = .org Commercial websites = .com nformation sites = .info
Although these top-level domains extensions still exist, they say little about a
website's actual content. In the modern day internet, the ".com" extension is by far
the most popular domain, a long with many other country-specific extensions.
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Q. Web browser
A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a software application for
accessing information on the World Wide Web. When a user opens a
particular website, the web browser retrieves the necessary content from a web
server then displays the resulting web page on the user's device.
A web browser is not the same thing as a search engine, though the two are often
confused.[1][2] For a user, a search engine is just a website, such as Google
Search, Bing, or DuckDuckGo, that stores searchable data about other websites.
However, to connect to a website's server and display its web pages, a user must
have a web browser installed.[3]
As of March 2019, more than 4.3 billion people use a browser, which is about 55%
of the world's population.[4] The three most popular browsers are Chrome, Firefox,
and Safari.

2.
Web Browser

Definition - What does Web Browser mean?

A web browser is a software program that allows a user to locate, access, and
display web pages. In common usage, a web browser is usually shortened to
"browser." Browsers are used primarily for displaying and accessing websites on
the internet, as well as other content created using languages such as Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Browsers translate web pages and websites delivered using Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) into human-readable content. They also have the ability to display
other protocols and prefixes, such as secure HTTP (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol
(FTP), email handling (mailto:), and files (file:).
In addition, most browsers also support external plug-ins required to display active
content, such as in-page video, audio and game content.
3.
What is a Web Browser?

Let's play word association, just like when a psychologist asks you what comes to
mind when you hear certain words: What do you think when you hear the words
"Opera. Safari. Chrome. Firefox."

If you think of the Broadway play version of "The Lion King," maybe it is time to see
a psychologist. However, if you said, "Internet browsers," you're spot on. That's
because the leading Internet Browsers are:

 Google Chrome
 Mozilla Firefox
 Apple Safari
 Microsoft Internet Explorer
 Microsoft Edge
 Opera
 Maxthon

And that order pretty much lines up with how they're ranked in terms of market
share and popularity...today. Browsers come and go. Ten years ago Netscape
Navigator was a well-know browser: Netscape is long gone today. Another, called
Mosaic, is considered the first modern browser—it was discontinued in 1997.

So, what exactly is a browser?

Definition

A browser, short for web browser, is the software application (a program) that
you're using right now to search for, reach and explore websites. Whereas Excel®
is a program for spreadsheets and Word® a program for writing documents, a
browser is a program for Internet exploring (which is where that name came from).

Browsers don't get talked about much. A lot of people simply click on the "icon" on
our computers that take us to the Internet—and that's as far as it goes. And in a
way, that's enough. Most of us simply get in a car and turn the key...we don't know
what kind of engine we have or what features it has...it takes us where we want to
go. That's why when it comes to computers:

 There are some computer users that can't name more than one or two
browsers
 Many of them don't know they can switch to another browser for free
 There are some who go to Google's webpage to "google" a topic and
think that Google is their browser.

So for some basic browser education sake, let's cover a few points:

 Know your browser. Look at the very far-upper-left corner of your

screen. You'll see the name of your browser.
 Get the latest version. Browsers get updates and updated regularly,
usually because computers and technology change fast also. You can
check what version of your browser you're currently using by going to
whatbrowser.org.
 Try a different browser. You can switch to another browser at any time.
It won't affect your computer and it will give you an idea of how they are
different.
 Read browser reviews. You can compare features of the different
browsers on websites like http://internet-browser-
review.toptenreviews.com. You'll learn what kind of features browsers offer
and what to look for.

Give it a try.

Most people stick with the browser that came with their computers. Internet
Explorer is a well-known browser because it comes with virtually every PC. Safari
is well known to Mac users (Apple computers) because that's the primary browser
on those computers. It's admirable to be loyal, but feel free to take this new
information and explore your browser choices. You never know what you might
discover...and what you wish you'd known before.

4.
What is a web browser?
A web browser takes you anywhere on the internet, letting you see text, images
and video from anywhere in the world.

The web is a vast and powerful tool. Over the course of a few decades the internet
has changed the way we work, the way we play and the way we interact with one
another. Depending on how it’s used, it bridges nations, drives commerce, nurtures
relationships, drives the innovation engine of the future and is responsible for more
memes than we know what to do with.

It’s important that everyone has access to the web, but it’s also vital that we
all understand the tools we use to access it. We use web browsers like Mozilla
Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari every day, but do we
understand what they are and how they work? In a short period of time we’ve gone
from being amazed by the ability to send an email to someone around the world, to
a change in how we think of information. It’s not a question of how much you know
anymore, but simply a question of what browser or app can get you to that
information fastest.

In a short period of time we’ve gone from being amazed by the ability to send
an email to someone around the world, to a change in how we think about
information.

Q. How does a web browser work?

A web browser takes you anywhere on the internet. It retrieves information from
other parts of the web and displays it on your desktop or mobile device. The
information is transferred using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which defines how
text, images and video are transmitted on the web. This information needs to be
shared and displayed in a consistent format so that people using any browser,
anywhere in the world can see the information.

Sadly, not all browser makers choose to interpret the format in the same way. For
users, this means that a website can look and function differently. Creating
consistency between browsers, so that any user can enjoy the internet, regardless
of the browser they choose, is called web standards.
When the web browser fetches data from an internet connected server and it then
uses a piece of software called a rendering engine to translate that data into text
and images. This data is written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and web
browsers read this code to create what we see, hear and experience on the
internet.

Hyperlinks allow users to follow a path to other pages or sites on the web. Every
webpage, image and video has its own unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL),
which is also known as a web address. When a browser visits a server for data, the
web address tells the browser where to look for each item that is described in the
HTML, which then tells the browser where it goes on the web page.

Cookies (not the yummy kind)

Websites save information about you in files called cookies. They are saved on
your computer for the next time you visit that site. Upon your return, the website
code will read that file to see that it’s you. For example, when you go to a website
and the page remembers your username and password – that’s made possible by
a cookie.

There are also cookies that remember more detailed information about you.
Perhaps your interests, your web browsing patterns, etc. This means that a site can
provide you more targeted content – often in the form of ads. There are types of
cookies, called third-party cookies, that come from sites you’re not even visiting at
the time and can track you from site to site to gather information about you, which
is sometimes sold to other companies. Sometimes you can block these kinds of
cookies, though not all browsers allow you to.

When you go to a website and the page remembers your username and
password – that’s made possible by a cookie.

Understanding privacy
Nearly all major browsers have a private browsing setting. These exist to hide the
browsing history from other users on the same computer. Many people think that
private browsing or incognito mode will hide both their identity and browsing history
from internet service providers, governments and advertisers. They don’t. These
settings just clear the history on your system, which is helpful if you’re dealing with
sensitive personal information on a shared or public computer. Firefox goes beyond
that.

Firefox helps you be more private online by letting you block trackers from following
you around the web.
Making your web browser work for you
Most major web browsers let users modify their experience through extensions or
add-ons. Extensions are bits of software that you can add to your browser to
customize it or add functionality. Extensions can do all kinds of fun and practical
things like enabling new features, foreign language dictionaries, or visual
appearances and themes.

All browser makers develop their products to display images and video as quickly
and smoothly as possible making it easy for you to make the most of the web. They
all work hard to make sure users have a browser that is fast, powerful and easy to
use. Where they differ is why. It’s important to choose the right browser for you.
Mozilla builds Firefox to ensure that users have control over their online lives and to
ensure that the internet is a global, public resource, accessible to all.