1. Web Search Tutorial: What is the Internet, anyway?

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If you visit the Pandia Powersearch all-in-one Web search gateway you will find a lot of different search engines, directories and other search services. The questions are: which ones should you use, and how should you use them?

The main focus of the Web search tutorial will be -- you guessed it -- the World Wide Web. Google now claims to have indexed more than 1 trillion web pages, i.e. files saved on Internet computers that are formatted in such a way that a regular web browser may read them.

You do not need to know the technicalities behind these various formats. Most of them (HTML, XHTML, XML) will bring you pages similar to the one you are reading right now.

What has made the World Wide Web such a great success is that pages saved on different computers all over the world may be interlinked with so-called hyper-text links (which are normally underlined). As we will see, these links do not only help you move from one web site to the other; they also help the search engine find the pages.

Still, it is important to remember that the Internet is more than the Web, i.e. colorful pages like this one with text, pictures and hyperlinks. Applications for smartphones and tablets also make use of the Internet for content distribution and interaction.

Even in this day and age, you can find relevant information in messages sent to so-called "newsgroups", i.e. specialised discussion forums that cover everything from the Beach Boys to astrophysics. You have access to these groups, and -- what is even more important -- you may search this "Usenet" by using the Google Groups service.

It should also be noted that lots of databases are accessible through the World Wide Web. The main search engines do not, however, map the content of these databases. Still, special directories may lead you to them.

You will find the Web addresses to most of the service mentioned in this Web search tutorial on our Powersearch page.

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