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Transcript of Chapter 1 Navigating and Searching the Webbcs.solano.edu/workarea/mfracisc/CIS 066 Word f-2-f... ·...
Student Name February 24, 2015
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Chapter 1 Navigating and Searching the Web Since so many people create web pages, the Web should be chaotic. However, underlying systems are in
place specifying how pages are organized on the Web and how they are delivered to your computer. This
system involves unique addresses used to access each web page, a unique address for each computer, and
browser features for locating and retrieving online content.
IPs and URLs An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that uniquely identifies a location on the Internet. An
IP address consists of four groups of numbers separated by periods; for example: 225.73.110.102. A
nonprofit organization called ICANN keeps track of IP numbers around the world.
Because numbers would be difficult to remember for retrieving pages, we use a text-based address referred
to as a uniform resource locator (URL) to go to a website. A URL, also called a web address, has several parts
separated by a colon (:), slashes (/), and dots (.). The first part of a URL is called a protocol and identifies a
certain way for interpreting computer information in the transmission process. Http, which stands for
hypertext transfer protocol, and ftp, for file transfer protocol, are examples of protocols. Some sites use a
secondary identifier for the type of site being contacted, such as www for World Wide Web site, but this is
often optional.
The next part of the URL is the domain name, which identifies the group of servers (the domain) to which the
site belongs and the particular company or organization name. A suffix, such as .com or .edu, further
identifies the domain. For example, the .com in the URL http://www.emcp.com is a top-level domain (TLD).
Several TLDs exists such as .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov. Table 1.1 provides a rundown of TLDs being used
today.
Table 1.1 Common Top-Level Domain Suffixes Used in URLs
Suffix Type of Organization Example
.biz business site Billboard: http://www.billboard.biz
.com company or commercial
institution
Intel: http://www.intel.com
.edu educational institution Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu
.gov government site Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov
.int international organizations
endorsed by treaty
World Health Organization: http://www.who.int
.mil military site U.S. Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil
.net administrative site for ISPs Earthlink: http://www.earthlink.net
.org nonprofit or private
organization
Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org
Browsing Web Pages You may already be quite comfortable with browsing the Internet, but you may not have pondered how
browsers move around the Web and retrieve data. Any element of a web page (text, graphic, audio, or video)
can be linked to another page using a hyperlink. A hyperlink describes a destination within a web document
and can be inserted in text or a graphical object such as a company logo. Text that is linked is called
hypertext.
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Chapter 2 Online Content Calculating exactly how many websites and web pages exist today is difficult but information from the
Netcraft Secure Server Survey in 2009 indicated an increase of over six million websites just between March
and April of that year. With that kind of constant activity, it is logical to conclude that not all of the content
that is online is of the same quality or accuracy. In addition, some of that content is free for the taking, while
other content is protected by copyright, or legal ownership of that content. Learning how to evaluate the
quality of content, respect laws that govern use of content, and understanding when free exchange of
content is allowed is important.
Evaluating Web Content Though a wealth of accurate and useful information exists online, some people believe that if they read it in
the newspaper or online, it must be true. That, however, is not the case. As in the offline world, you have to
consider the source of online content. If you trust technology information from Wired magazine in print, you
can have a similar level of trust in their online site. If you do not know a source at all, you may have to do
some digging to discover if it is reputable by looking at the source’s credentials (which individuals or
organizations are involved in the venture?), methods (for example, is the information based on surveys and
experiment, or personal opinion?), and reputation (what do other online users say in reviews of the site or
the company’s products?).
Because anyone can publish to the Web, to gauge the accuracy of what you read, you have to verify the three
Ws (or WWW) of online content.
• WHO is the author or publisher? Is the source credible?
• WHAT is the message? Is the information verifiable? Is there a possibility of bias? Always try to
crosscheck the information with other sources. Look for sponsors of a site to determine if they have
a bias.
• WHEN was this published? Is this information current? If no date is published, is it possible to figure
out how current the information is from the text? Online information can stay put for a very long
time. Always look for the most current information on any topic.
Intellectual Property Some information or works online are placed there to be shared and passed on. Other content falls into the
category of intellectual property, much of which is copyrighted. According to the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), intellectual property refers to “the creations of the mind; inventions, literary and
artistic works; and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.” Copying or distributing
intellectual property without appropriate permission is illegal.
The Internet has brought the issue of illegal treatment of intellectual property front and center. Because
copying and pasting content online is so simple, many people who would never dream of stealing a CD from a
music store or a book from a bookstore download music illegally or plagiarize by using text or images from a
website and representing that content as their own work.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs, such as BearShare, are used by millions of people to share music,
video, and other types of files. File sharing allows people to download content from another user’s hard
drive. This type of sharing is ripe for copyright abuse because materials that might be downloaded from a
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Chapter 3 E-Commerce Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, involves using the Internet to transact business. When you are buying
downloadable music, shopping for shoes, or paying to access your credit report, for example, you are
involved in e-commerce.
Three main types of e-commerce describe how money flows in an online business. Money can flow from
business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C). Sometimes more
than one of these models occurs on a single site (for example, when a consumer on eBay buys a product from
another consumer (C2C), but eBay makes money from advertisers (B2B).
B2C E-Commerce Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is probably the kind with which you are most familiar. It involves
companies that sell products and services to individual consumers, such as Amazon.com, JustHost.com
(website hosting service), and Zappos.com. This is the model that most resembles those stores in the mall
that you go to when purchasing books, obtaining tax return help, or finding shoes.
B2B E-Commerce Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce involves businesses selling to businesses. In some cases, a business
provides supplies or services to another business, such as a plumbing supply site that caters to building
contractors. In another B2B model, businesses provide a service to consumers but do not charge those
consumers directly. Instead, their business model involves making money from selling ad space to
advertisers, or selling information about their customers to advertisers. Given that e-commerce models are
defined by how money flows, Facebook is an example of this second kind of B2B site because it gets no
money from its members, only from advertisers (or other businesses).
C2C E-Commerce Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce activity occurs on sites such as Craigslist or eBay where
consumers buy and sell items from each other over the Internet. Though the host site provides the
infrastructure, the money flows from one consumer to another. What e-commerce model do you think
supports the companies that host C2C sites? If you guessed B2B (they get their money from advertisers) you
would be right!
E-Commerce and Consumer Safety In many cases, buying and selling items online is safer than doing so offline. That’s because rather than
handing your credit card to a clerk in a store, you are performing a transaction over a secure connection,
providing payment information to a system rather than an individual. Of course, every system has its
problems, and online stores, banks, and investment sites are hacked into now and then. Still, if you use care
in choosing trusted shopping sites, pay by a third-party payment service such as PayPal or by credit card
(these purchases are protected from theft, while a check or debit card purchase is not), and make sure that
while performing a transaction the URL prefix reads https (which indicates a secure connection), you can be
confident that you will have a safe shopping experience.