6.2 Demonstrate knowledge of search logic, search engines and features of the Internet

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Truncation and wildcards
3. Grammar of the Internet
   1. Using WHOIS
   2. URL extensions
   3. United Kingdom extensions ...
   4. United States extensions
4. Search engine operation
5. Ownership of the web
6. Dark internet and the invisible web

Grammar of the Internet

The official name for what we commonly refer to as a website address is URL. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Certain conventions apply to the construction of URLs which can give pointers on their usefulness. (This is also relevant to the validation of website results - see Outcome 4). Alan November has called this the Grammar of the Internet.

(see http://www.anovember.com/Default.aspx?tabid=160)

http stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. This simply means your browser is looking for a Hyper Text document. Hyper Text is the basic coding used to construct web pages

www, as we all know, stands for World Wide Web.

The interesting parts are after http and www. The next part is called the domain name. So for instance in http://www.amazon.co.uk the domain name is amazon.co.uk

The first part of the domain name may yield useful clues. Is it a well-known name? If you come up with a page on the site http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ it has the authority of being on the BBC website. Is it a 'personal' site giving the opinion of only one person? The name of the person may be explicit in the domain name eg http://www.jamieoliver.net/

BUT be terribly careful here. An individual may set up a website to promote their own ideas and then a rival may set up a website with an equally convincing domain name. Remember anyone can set up a domain name of their choice and load any sort of rubbish onto the website.

Let's look next at Using WHOIS ...