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Learn Library reference skills to improve yourself as a Librarian or Library Technical Assistant with the Soaring to Excellence series of satellite teleconferences, and now we offer videotapes of past conferences, all from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn Illinois.
Soaring
to Excellence 2004 Friday,
January 23, 2004 Part II. The Internet
Search Engines, Directories, Portals, and the Invisible WebSearch EnginesA search engine is an automated system of software & hardware that uses keywords and phrases to find a list of web sites with those keywords or phrases. Search engines include:
A meta-search engine uses many search engines at once to search, but it may not use the “top” search engines. Meta-search engines include:
DirectoriesDirectories are hierarchical subject indexes that have been cataloged by humans, not machines. Searchers can drill down from the general subject categories to more specific categories. Directories may also provide reviews of the web sites they catalog.
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Feature
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Google
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Yahoo
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AlltheWeb
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AltaVista
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“Or” feature
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OR
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OR
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(
) around each word
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OR
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Case
Sensitivity
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Upper
or lower case
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Upper
or lower case
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Upper
or lower case
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Upper
will only retrieve upper-to get both, use lower case
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Title
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Intitle:
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Intitle:
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Normal.title:
or Title: |
Title:
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URL
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Inurl:
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Inurl:
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Url:
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Url:
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Link
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Link:
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Link:
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Link:
or Link.all
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Link:
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Mankako, Minnesota’ Underwater City
http://www.lme.mankato.msus.edu/mankato/under.htmlDihydrogen Monoxide - DHMO Homepage
http://www.dhmo.org/History of a Victorian Era Robot
http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/
Search it Right.com
http://www.searchitright.com
Donna Fryer's company offers outstanding information resources, including her CD on advanced searching techniques and implementation strategies.
Search it Right Training CD
http://www.searchitright.com/order.html
This research training CD can be used for Information Professionals, Libraries, Finance Industry, Insurance Industry, Legal Research, Credit Managers, and many other industries besides competitive intelligence.
1. Accuracy
2. Authority
3. Objectivity
4. Currency
5. Coverage
Accuracy of web documents
Authority of web documents
Objectivity of web documents
Currency of web documents
Coverage of web documents
Evaluation of Information SourcesThe World-Wide Web Virtual Library
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/evaln.htm
Spam commonly refers unsolicited e-mail advertisements—electronic junk mail. It can also include any inappropriate e-mail, including personal messages sent to and from people’s e-mail accounts at work.
Spam wastes time and computer space. It is also illegal to send an unsolicited advertisement electronically, though that does not stop it from happening. Few people are willing to file a complaint in a Small Claims Court.
Spammers gather e-mail addresses in a variety of ways. One of these is by using a spambot—a program that gathers e-mails from web pages and uses them as targets for spam.
Spam may also contain an embedded image (or ‘Web bug’), which you may not even be able to see, It is often a single, transparent pixel, but it allows spammers to know that you are opening your email. The image is actually on their web site, and opening the email activates the link to that image, telling the spammer’s computer that you actually look at your spam, so send more!
One way to catch these messages is to set your filters to look for the HTML code for an image (IMG) in the body of the message.
How to recognize Spam without opening your e-mail:
President Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act on December 15, 2003. This new law, which took effect on January 1, 2004, is designed to curb spam by
Do not spam by sending jokes, web sites, etc. to people on your company’s email account. Do it on your own computer, and your own time.
Spam Recycling Center
http://www.spamrecycle.com/antispamthings.htm“Spam Is Not the Worst of It”
Email etiquette and related gripes
The Essayist, October 10, 1999
http://unquietmind.com/email.html“Is the CAN-SPAM Law Working?”
Only a small percentage of unsolicited e-mail complies with the new law, studies show.
Grant Gross, IDG News Service, Tuesday, January 13, 2004
PCWorld.com
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114287,00.asp"Why Am I Getting All This Spam?"
Advice on how to avoid spam
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), December 16, 2003
http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/
Software downloads are computer programs that can be delivered directly to your computer’s hard drive through the Internet. This software can be free (Freeware), downloadable for a free trial before purchasing (Shareware), or commercial (must be purchased before using). There are several types of software downloads.
Plug-ins are software programs that specifically extend the capabilities of the browser you are using, giving you the ability to do things like download and display or hear audio, video, animation, and special image viewing files.
A List of Browser Plugins
Web Developer’s Virtual Library
http://www.wdvl.com/Software/Plugins/Adobe Acrobot Reader
Free download
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Security Software
This software protects your computer from viruses, spyware, and other threats
to the safety of your computer and your own privacy.
Three small, freely available programs can help you deal with Spyware.
Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=downloadAd Aware 6
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
AVG offers regularly updated, well-supported anti-virus programs, including a free edition for single home users, and discounts for non-profit organizations on the commercial edition.
AVG
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
CNET is a media and technology company with a
web portal that links to product reviews, shopping, tech news and
downloads. The download page includes both free and commercial
products, ratings and reviews, online newsletters, and special
offers.
CNET
http://www.cnet.com
ZDNet is a subsidiary of CNet that focuses on
business technology. Its portal includes news, updates, white papers,
reviews & prices, and downloads. Like its parent company, ZDNet’s
download page includes products, ratings, and reviews. It also
has a search engine that brings you to a page rating different
software packages when you type “spam” in the search
box.
ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com
Tucows has been making software downloads available since 1993, and was the first to provide freeware and shareware. It now also provides Internet services, such as domain name registration, and e-business products and services, such as digital web certificates and e-mail services.
Tucows
http://www.tucows.com
PC World Downloads offers reviews, utilities, patches & drivers, and other downloads related to Privacy & Security, Graphics & Multimedia, Handhelds, and Fun & Games.
PC World Downloads
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/index/0,00.asp
Pop-up advertisements on the Internet are effective advertising, and they are very annoying to computer users. There are a number of ways to prevent pop-up advertising online. Google and Yahoo! Provide toolbars with options for suppressing pop-up advertisements. And Microsoft is reported to be including a blocker in its next version of Internet Explorer.
Google Toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com/Yahoo! Companion Toolbar
http://companion.yahoo.com/“Microsoft Move Likely to Be Death Knell to Pop-Up Advertising Format”
Mark Glaser
December 12, 2003
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1071011476.php
A Cookie is a
small text file placed on your computer’s hard drive when you
visit a particular web site. The computer storing this web sight
(called a server) uses a Cookie as an identification card, to recognize
you (or rather, your computer) when you return to that web site.
Commercial web sites use Cookies to store information about you and
your preferences, and can be used to customize your online shopping.
Cookies can be placed on your computer, and access personal information without
your knowledge or permission. Existing regulations, targeted at protecting
personal information, limit the use and application of cookies. However, the
way Cookies are currently used frequently violates these regulations.
To find out whether a web site uses Cookies and what they do with the information, check the Privacy Policy. You can also adjust your browser’s security settings, and check your hard drive for Cookies.
Internet
Explorer 6.0
To check or change your browser’s security settings:
Menu bar > Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab > Adjust (default
setting is medium)
To
see what cookies you have:
Menu bar > Tools > Internet Options > General > Settings > View
Files
The Settings page also has a Delete Cookies button
Internet Explorer 5.0
To check or change your browser’s security settings:
Menu bar > Tools > Internet Options > Security tab > Internet > Custom
Level > Cookies > Choose one of the two options.
To see what
cookies you have:
• Go into your cookies directory (usually c:\windows\cookies)
• Delete all the files you have there
Netscape Communicator 6.0
To check or change your browser’s security settings:
Task bar > Edit > Preferences > Privacy & Security > Cookies > choose
• Enable all cookies
• Enable no cookies
• Enable selected cookies
• Warn you before setting any cookies
To see what
cookies you have:
• Click on the View Stored Cookies button.
Netscape Communicator 4
To check or change your browser’s security settings:
Task bar > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Set your options in
the box labeled "Cookies."
To see what
cookies you have:
• Find your cookie file.
• Check your user directory for the program (/Program Files/Netscape/Users/YourID)
• Look for a file named cookies.txt or cookie5.dat.
• Open this file in any text browser to view the cookies.
Note: If you delete all of your Cookies, some sites may not work as well.
Cookie Central
http://www.cookiecentral.com/Electronic Information Privacy Center: Cookies
http://www.epic.org/privacy/internet/cookies/Webmonkey: An Introduction to Cookies
by Marc Slayton, November 7, 1996
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/webmonkey/geektalk/96/45/index3a.htmlNetscape Network Security Center: Privacy
http://wp.netscape.com/security/basics/privacy.html#cookies
Spyware is also known as Advertising Supported software or Adware. It is software that gathers information about your through your Internet connection without your knowledge; usually for advertising purposes. Spyware may be hidden in freeware or shareware programs downloaded through the Internet. It has the capability to monitor your online activity as well as gathering information such as e-mail addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. It can also scan the files on your hard drive, eavesdrop on chat sessions, read cookies, and change your default home page.
Spyware also uses memory and system resources, and may cause your computer to run slower or crash more frequently.
Although Spyware is not illegal, it has the potential to violate your privacy. Be extra cautious about what you download from the Internet; especially files ending with .exe. Read the licensing agreement closely before downloading any software, and be alert to changes in your PC that may indicate this virus.
Intranet Journal.com: Inside Spyware
A Guide to Finding, Removing and Preventing Online Pests
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/Spychecker.com
http://www.spychecker.com/home.html“Spyware—It's lurking on your machine”
By Cade Metz
PC Magazine, April 22, 2003
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,978170,00.asp
When you shop on the Internet, you have two major concerns:
Using your credit card number on the Internet can be no more dangerous than using it in a store or over the phone. In fact, it is often more secure to give out your account number over the Internet, because Web sites using a technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encrypt e-mail messages to protect them against eavesdropping and tampering. SSL can also provide authentication—verifying that the company receiving your e-mail is actually who it claims to be, and protecting you from impersonation.
How can you check on a web site’s security status to see if it uses SSL and encryption? Check the URL in the browser; you should see https:// instead of http://. Also, the broken key symbol in the lower left corner of the Netscape browser becomes solid when SSL is being used. In Internet Explorer, the open padlock in the corner is closed. Also, Internet Explorer warns you if you are about to send information to a non-secure site.
A digital certificate
is software that you can install in your browser that identifies
you to web sites equipped to automatically check it. A digital certificate
eliminates the need for passwords and is more secure, because it
encrypts your e-mail messages. It can be used with most popular e-mail
programs.
Digital certificates can be obtained at:
Verisign
http://info.netscape.com/fwd/verisign/http:/www.verisign.com/client/enrollment/index.html
Cost: $14.95 per year, or free 60-day trial edition
Internet Fraud Watch
Online service for reporting frauds
http://www.fraud.org/ifw.htmVerisign's Browser Check
An online tool to assist you in checking the security level of your browser
http://verisign.netscape.com/advisor/index.htmlHow Encryption Works
http://wp.netscape.com/security/basics/encryption.htmlIs It Safe to Shop on the Internet?
http://wp.netscape.com/security/basics/shopping.html?cp=scilnDigital Certificates
http://wp.netscape.com/security/techbriefs/certificates/
Firewalls are software programs or hardware devices that act as barriers or filters to e-mails and other information coming into your computer (or network) through the Internet. Firewalls control what gets through to your computer, and what does not. Some of the things that firewalls prevent are:
Firewalls also stop anyone on the outside from logging onto a computer in your
private network, an important security consideration at work. For a firewall
to work effectively, however, it must be a part of a consistent organizational-level
security plan. This includes using virus-scanning software that runs whenever
the computer is rebooted, and knowing not to open suspicious files.
Firewalls can also serve as an organizational ``ambassador'' to the Internet, storing public information about products and services, files to download, etc. An example of this can be found at the White House’s web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov.
Internet Firewalls: FAQ
http://www.interhack.net/pubs/fwfaq/How Firewalls Work
By Jeff Tyson
How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm
Copyright
© 2001-2003
College of DuPage. Email comments to teleconference@cdnet.cod.edu
Site updated 22 January 2004 by Gnu
Media Design Company.
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