Conducting Computer Search

Inter American University of Puerto Rico

Languages Department

Prof. Gladys Cruz

GEEN 2313

Introduction

Web sites are not organized like books in a library in a library, and it would be impossible to catalog all of its sites.

Within the Web pages themselves, finished prose mixes freely with conversation, art with advertising, and careful research with reckless hearsay.

Information is often published on the Web which no serious publisher would touch. For this reason, Web sites are considered less authoritative research sources than printed articles and books.

The Anatomy of a Web Page

Home pages: A home page is like a title

page, table of contents, index, and introduction combined. The home page is the first, or “top” page in a site. It usually contains, some prefatory material and complete list of links to each of the site’s major content pages, or to each major content section in larger sites.

Content pages: Where home pages describe

what information the site contains, content pages contain the information itself. Each content page should have a link “up” to the site’s home page. If you follow a link from one page to the content page on another site, look for the link (usually at the bottom or top) to the destination site’s home page to see what else is available there.

The Anatomy of a Web Page

The Header:usually contains a test title or graphicbanner. The header may also contain

links that lead directly to otherpages in the site.

The Body:contains the actual content, includingtext and links. Links-those active “hot-words” in the text- can lead to another page, a different site, or to a differentsection of the same page.

The Footer:contains critical information about the page:usually shows the date when it was created and last updated, the name of the author, the e-mail address of the author, and the name of the institution, organization, or company.

The Inter American University, Bayamon Campus Home Page