Integrated Packages
Offices include Apple Works and Microsoft Works. Instead of buying separate software from all of the categories above, some users prefer an integrated package which offers basic features from all of these applications. They usually lack the full range of features of other packages, but are cheaper and are often sufficient for many users. Sharing data within an integrated package is easier and the interface is more consistent.
Office Suites
Examples include Apple Works and Microsoft WordPerfect Suite, Microsoft Office, Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice.org. An alternative to an integrated package is an office suite that will typically include software in most of the above categories and the user can then choose which to install. Unlike integrated packages, office suites are often a combination of stand-alone applications.
- All programs have the same look and feel and the same basic functionality.
Internet Software
The internet is a very important ICT tool for many business and private individuals. It is important for the user to understand that the internet is NOT the same as the World Wide Web.
In days before WWW, the internet was primarily a tool for academics to share information and was not easy to use as it is now. If someone wanted to access data they had to know what remote server to contact and what files to ask it for. There was no concept of either ‘surfing’ or search engines, both of which are common today.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
SGT was a widely used tool and remains available today, though largely unknown to non-ICT specialists. FTP’s origins lie in the days of text-based interfaces but today both GUI based and WWW based FTP software is available. Users of Microsoft Windows can access a text based of FTP programme through the command prompt. The following example shows how text-based of FTP may be used to download a copy of Mozilla browser.
- Type ftp in the command prompt and press return to start the software.
- Type open.ftp.mozilla.org to connect to the remote server. The server will acknowledge itself.
- Type your username and password and your email address respectively.
- Type dir to see the contents of the remote directory. In this example, it shows one folder called ‘pub’
- Type cd pub to enter the directory.
Web Browsers
The most commonly used web browsers used were internet explorer 7 Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
In addition, a growing number of users excess the www through other devices, such as games consoles and mobile phones. The Nintendo wii, for example, allows users access the WWW via Opera. The wide variety of web browsers in use underlines the need for web developers to rigidly follow standards to ensure that all users of the WWW can access data. Since most browsers and sites today do follow these standards, the choice of browser is largely down to individual taste.
Nether the less, non – standard features that are included in some web browsers may be useful for some developers. For example, internet explorer includes features that are designed for server versions of Microsoft Windows, and some designers will take advantage of these features to facilitate file transfer services without expecting the user to install extra software. This does, of course, depend on the user having a copy of internet explorer. Similar tools, allowing access to features of certain web-servers exist in other browsers.
Functions of a Web Browser
At a minimum, a web browser should display HTML pages and any linked graphics or audio. It should also allow the user to enter data from submission to a website. However, modern browsers incorporate a large number of additional features. At the time of writing, these include the following:
- Bookmarks – called favourites in some browsers. Allow a user to store a list of their favourite sites for easy access, rather than having to write out a list of web addresses. They can usually be sorted into folders.
-
Plug Ins – extra programs that display data that is not in standard HTML format. Popular plug ins include adobe flash player and adobe acrobat rader. 3rd party plug ins, often known as widgets, are also available for some browsers.
- Tabbed browsing – if a user if working between several websites, the screen can become very cluttered with windows. Allow the user to open several pages inside the one main browser window. This was developed by Opera and late included include in Firefox and internet explorer 7.
- Integrated Email/Chat/RSS Clients – while these functions are available via stand-alone programs, a number of browsers offer communication tools.
- Integrated Web Editing – available in some packages, such as the full Mozilla Suite which includes an email client (thunderbird) and a web editor (sea monkey) as well as a web browser (Firefox).
- Password Management – to prevent users from getting passwords. A number of browsers ask the user, when they type password, if they would like it stored for later use.
- Download Managers - allow a user to pause a download or resume a failed download to reduce frustration and allow very large files or be downloaded progressively.
- Pop up blocking – pop up windows appear automatically when browsing certain websites, and are often perceived as a nuisance. Pop up blockers, such as the Google toolbar, and the Yahoo toolbar prevent such windows opening, although they do notify the user in case they wish to override the block. A number of browsers now include this feature as standard.
- Integrated Search Engine Links – First appear on toolbars. Most browsers now include this as a standard feature that users can customize.
Search Engines
search engines are essential tools that allow WWW users to find relevant information in the vast arena of the internet by entering keywords or phrases that form the basis of a database query. The database in question is the search engines catalogue of the entire internet. At the time of writing, the Google search engine accounts for more searches than all other search engines combined.
Although search engines usually return useful results immediately, most include a number of features that can be used to refine results. For example, the query crisps and tayto will search for crisps but insist that only pages containing the word tayto are returned. Placing a request in quotes, for example “cheese and onion”, will search for the precise phrase, rather than pages that simply contain those words anywhere in the page. Most search engines include options to search for particular types of fields (PDF, images etc.) or limit the search to certain languages.
How a Searcg Engine Works
a search engine uses a huge database held on a central server. This database is a build up by a process called spidering or crawling where an automated web browser will visit a page and then visit every page that it links to. Over time, the spider program will visit most pages on the internet. As new websites will have no links going to them, many search engines allow users to submit details of their site to allow it to be indexed. When a sight is spidered, its contents are indexed so that search terms can be compared to the contents of the page.
When a user performs a search, the search terms are compared to the index of web pages that are stored on the server and results are returned in a ranked order. A sites ranking is influenced by factors such as a title tag, key word frequency, how many other sites link to it and how many people visit it (which can be used as measurements of a sites importance). Some search engines look at over 200 factors in order to rank a website. Many search engines provide free toolbars that can be installed on a users PC in order to personalise the service they provide by watching how the search engine is used. Ranking determine the perceived quality of the search engine in the eyes of the users. In the same way, if a site ranked low down is visited often enough, the search engine will recognise that users perceive it to be important, and in future it will receive a higher rank. Hence the performance of search engines is affected by what users do with the results.
Specialist Search Engines
Search engines like Google search the whole WWW, but a number of special purpose search engines also exist. These include:
- Meta-Search Engines – These submit a single query to many search engines at once and combine their results in a single page.
- Sites that aggregate content – many popular sites have very little content of their own but will compile data from many other sites and present them in one place. Examples include:
- Reference sites such as answers.com. a search of this site for ice cream, for example, will produce a large results page featuring descriptions of ice cream from a number of online encyclopaedias, dictionary definitions of the term, recipes etc.
- News sites such as Google news. Present a summary of news headlines from a number of sources. This site can be customized by the user, allowing control over what sort of stories are shown and what sources are used. It can even be instructed to email relevant stories to register users.
- Shopping Comparison Sites – such as kelkoo allow users to search many shopping sites for a given product. The results are presented on a single page listing many vendors and their price for the product. Sae principals have been applied to travel (e.g. expedia) and financial loans (e.g. money supermarket)
- Sites that restrict content – sites that restrict content to a particular subject area. Torrent spy, for example only searches for BIT TORRENT files while blogscope only searches blogs. Northernirelandprepertynews.com restricts results to local house for sale, allowing users to specify criteria such as area, price and number of bedrooms.
- Emailed based search engines – such as TEK (Time Equals Knowledge) which was developed by MIT for use in countries with low bandwidth. A user can email a request to the TEK server, which carries out a search while the user is offline and emails data from the most relevant pages back to the user server at a non-peak usage time for the user to access at a time convenient to them.
