Web Browsing Basics

What is a Browser

A browser is a program for using the internet to read what is already out there, or to write your own pages on sites such as wordpress.com or blogger.com.

Open your browser by clicking on the picture for it (Internet explorer is a blue e, Chrome is a red, yellow and green frisbee or Safari is a blue compass).

When it opens there is a long white rectangle under the menu bar. Click in there, type or paste the url. Push the return key. It should start to load. Some load quickly, some slowly.

What are Links?

If you text is underlined, in a different colour or bigger text within an article it is a link to another article.

Most start with http: or https: The s addition to http shows that behind that page there’s extra security. Bank addresses use extra levels of software to block hacker access.

Each page has an url (short for Universal Resource Locator) which is an address on the internet often these days, words that make it friendly and memorable. The url behind it to the computer is a series of numbers.

If a link starts with btly it is a shortcut to a longer name of the page. This to avoid a long name being broken by a document, adding a hyphen so it not longer works to click. It should immediately forward you to another page.

How to use a Link

When you are aleady on a webpage clicking on the underlined text will take you to another page.

If you have a document with an address starting http:// that isn’t a link you can click, you can highlight and copy and paste it into a browser.