A guide to using the internet
Search engines
Bing
cons
News is not relevant to the region you are in
Suspiciously similar to Google layout
Large amount of redundancy present
pros
has current news on title page
easier to search by image
always has a shopping tab
Yahoo
cons
Many of the articles are, in fact, ads
Hard to operate privacy settings
Hard to access SafeSearch
pros
Has news on title page
Has weather on title page
For those who use such things, has Yahoo Horoscope
pros
Most popular
Is linked to Google Suite
Better format for links to, for example, Twitter
cons
Hard to buy stuff
Cannot switch languages if you are searching
An internet search engine set up in 2009 by Microsoft
I have chosen to write a guide to the internet as I have found that it is occasionally hard to use and I wish to write a guide to help people using it
Was named to sound vaguely computery
Was set up under the name BackRub in 1995 by a pair of college students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Named after the number 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 : : :
"Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"
Was originally a list of links to interesting sites made by Jerry Yang and David Filo
Search the internet for specific sites
The site: function
The solution: the site: function
This allows one to see search results only from a specific site.
Step 3: type everything that you want to see in the URL, e.g. this would be twitter.com for twitter
Step 2: type site:
Step 1: type in the words you want to search for
The problem
If one wants to see, for example, twitter's views on climate change, one may have tried to do so by searching up "climate change Twitter"
This does not work. Instead you will get any site that mentions both climate change and twitter, e.g. Climate change on Twitter: Content, media ecology and information sharing behaviour
Notes on the site: function
You get different results, in no pattern that I can divulge, if you do steps 2 and 3 before step 1
This function is not necessary on google: instead, search for the shown link on the search page (or one like it), and click on it
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The question area
On google, one may occasionally see a white box, within which are written questions. If one clicks on a question an "answer" appears
Do not trust this area! Due to the simple nature of the algorithm, totally misleading answers will appear, for example: Q:Why mercury has no boiling point? A:Low melting point. (for the record, mercury does have a boiling point- 356.7°C, to be exact)
Although inspired, the algorithm is simplistic. It shows commonly-searched questions, then inputs them through Google's own algorithm, gets the first website that pops up, and then gives as an answer the sentence that the question appears in
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Using site offline
Sometimes, you may want to view a website while offline. In order to do so, you must:
Prepare in advance, choosing and finding the website you want to view while you still have internet
While viewing the site, turn your device offline
Not reload the page, or cause the page to be reloaded
Not click on any links, submission buttons, the back arrow, etc.
Not change to any other tab. This means that you can only view one website at a time with this trick
If the page disappears, for whatever reason, go back to the tab, press reload 3 times, the back arrow, then reload 3 times again. If it still doesn't work, give up and play the dinosaur game
WARNING: upon attempting this trick, the lock symbol will disappear and be replaced by "offline" in grey letters. Do not be alarmed; as your computer is no longer connected to the internet, you cannot enter passwords etc. anyway, so your data is still safe
NOTE: some especially large or complex pages, e.g. friv, twitter, may have their images replaced with small green boxes, their text cut off, or they may simply fail to work at all
Opinions
The world's
Mostly, equal proportions of the world think that the internet has improved or worsened life in general
People generally think that it has improved education and personal finance
Most people think that the internet has worsened romantic relationships and politics
My opinions
I think that the internet is an amazing and wonderful tool. The people who use it to injure others, are, in my opinion, are doing nothing more than they would have done in real life, except for the fear of punishment that would have held them back. In my opinion, fear of punishment is no excuse at all
Random facts and tips
I prefer to use Google, as it is the most popular. If someone tells me to looks X up, you'll find it pretty quickly, they're probably talking about Google
Half of everybody in the world uses the internet every day
For every 5 people using the internet, there are 4 web pages. Most of these aren't used more than once a year, if at all
Video:
How this topic affects young people
Young people have grown up in a world that is changing must faster than their parent's. It is important that they understand the wonderful tools that have been handed to them
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Web crawlers
Indexes run on web crawlers. These go into websites and jump between hyperlinks, indexing every website that they come to
Web indexes
Every search engine has an index. It holds informations and hyperlinks about websites
Examples:
Bingbot
Googlebot desktop
Googlebot mobile
What I learned from this topic
I learned how to make my searches more effective on the internet
Conclusion
In conclusion, though confusing the internet is a great tool for learning and helping- though it can be used to harm as well. It is up to you, as young adults, to use the internet safely and responsibly, for the good of all