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Internet tips
What is a browser?
A browser (or a Web browser) is a software application you can use to locate and display web sites. The common used browsers are graphical browsers displaying graphics and text. With so called plugins (additional software) most browsers can manage multimedia information like sound and video. The internet explorer is the most used but not the best, so compare.
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Netscape
Opera
Internet Explorer
What is a search engine?
A search engine is a website that allows you to search through a huge list of web pages which it has made by going through the web itself and making a list.
They are useful because otherwise you would have to know the address of the site you are going to, or keep going from one web page to the next till you find it which would take a pretty long time!
So, if you live in Mombasa and are dying for a pizza you can just type the words 'pizza restaurant Mombasa' to find relevant sites.
There are two different types of search sites, an engine and a directory.
Search engines just bring up a list of all the sites that match what you type in the search box.
They list the sites they think are the best matches at the top of the list. They can give you lists of thousands of sites but hopefully the one you want will be on the first page.
A directory is more like a guide to websites which records a few details about sites and orders them by subject.
It's a bit like the Yellow Pages but covers everything, not just shops.
There might be pages with lists of sparepart shops ordered by town, or lists of shop catalogue companies grouped by what sort of clothes they sell.
You can still search through a directory just like a search engine, but you can also use a directory to just browse through by subject. Yahoo! is a famous directory style search.
If You get 1000’s of results, You have to narrow your search by using the special characters like + or - . Unless you narrow your search you'll get swamped by thousands of irrelevant results - and maybe miss the link to the site you do want!
The best tip to getting good results from search engines is to know what you want. ‘What are you looking for?’ The internet is an endless pool with billions of pages, so be precise what you type in the search box.
If you are looking for a Pizzeria in Mombasa just type exactly what you want – don’t add any nonsense.
Type in your search box :
Pizzeria Mombasa
Wrong :
Where can I find a Pizzeria in Mombasa?
Use nouns, do not use verbs.
Don’t use more than six keywords, but more than one.
Put the most important words first because many search engines work with these priorities.
Imagine you want to search for a cocktail that includes Vodka, Kenya Cane and mango juice.
The best way to do this is to type:
cocktail +vodka +Kenya Cane
Now let's say that you don't want your search result to include the word Martini because you don't like it.
The best way to do this is to type:
cocktail +vodka +Kenya Cane –Martini
Using the plus sign before a word means that it must be included in the results and using the minus sign before a word means it must be excluded from the results.
If you want to search for an entire phrase, just use the quotation marks to make the words a unit. For example you want to have the cocktail with mango juice just search like this:
cocktail +vodka +Kenya Cane +”mango juice”
If you do not use the quotation marks the search engine will bring results with mango and juice separately.
In general capital letters are not significantly important when searching, but it is still a good idea to use the correct expressions à ‘Will’ Smith is a name, but I ‘will’ go to the cinema has a complete different meaning.
The correct spelling is also important when you search, because even if you type in the wrong word there are still a lot of results with the wrong spelling. Some search engines have a spelling checker if you type in ‘cinemma’ you will be asked:do you mean ‘cinema’?
To find what you want can be sometimes frustrating, so take it easy, it will take a bit of practice.
