The document discusses what the internet is and provides some terminology used to describe it. It explains that the internet is a network of connected computers that allow files written in HTML to be accessed globally through web browsers. It also defines some common terms used like URL, browser, search engine, and domains. The document outlines two main types of searches - when the specific item is known, like using a URL or DOI, versus searching without knowing the exact item using keywords. It provides some tips for each type of search and discusses using tools like search engines and the Wayback Machine.

1. What is the Internet
What:
How Big:
Who creates it:
How to use it: Use a search engine
and natural language and
specialized search language
Why:

2. What is the internet?
• A whole bunch of computers connected
together
• Files written in Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML) can be read on a
• Web browser using a Graphical User
Interface (GUI)
• So when you use the interface you are
really just looking at files stored on
another computer somewhere in the world

3. Some other terminology
• URL – universal resource locator
• DOI – document identifier
• index.html – main page or index page in a web file
directory
• Browser – the software that can display internet files
• Search engine – software that can search and index
files on the web
• Web bot, or bot – software that harvests information
from the web for search engines
• .edu .gov .edu .com – domains in a URL
• IP address – Internet Protocol, the network a
computer belongs to – a Princeton IP address

4. Two kinds of searches
1 You know what you are looking for.
“I have a DOI (Document Identifier), or URL
(Universal Resource Locator).”
1 You are looking for something but you
don’t know what you will find.
“I need information about _____.”

5. Tips for the first kind of
searching - URLs
• You don’t have to include http:// when searching, just use
the domain, ie. library.princeton.edu
• URLs have separate parts, the first part
– library.princeton.edu is called the domain
– Everything that comes after it, is really just file names in
a file structure. You can use this information to navigate
back to the larger website from a page you are on.
– smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/
– By working backwards, the recipe for moms apple cake
is a file in the 09 folder, from the 2008 folder, in the blog
folder of the domain smittenkitchen.com

6. Tips for the second kind of
searching
• Google is constantly improving, so the
best palec to go to find out how to use
Google, is their own site
• www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/in
dex.html
• My favorites - exact phrase searching,
definition, spelling, searching Princeton
website, currency conversions. There are
lots – experiment!

7. What if something is no longer
there?
• The wayback machine!
• An internet archive – web.archive.org
• Go here to find web pages that have been
removed from the internet

8. A few more tips
• Use Google to find things on any site that
is badly organized or indexed
• If you have a bad citation, enter the title in
quotations, as a Google search, and you
may be able to find the correct citation
• Parts of the Internet have controlled
access, you may not be able to access
everything, depending on what domain
your computer is part of -