The Web is a great place to learn more about any topic you can
think of. Below, we've listed several categories of Web
sites that we think will interest you. Take some time and explore
them all.
CAREERS
We hope it's safe to assume that you're going to
school to either (1) prepare to get a really great job, or (2)
continue to advance in your already chosen career. Whatever the case, the Web is full of career Web sites, that
offer everything from searchable databases of job postings to
tips concerning how to dress for an interview. Below, we've listed just a few of the many career sites
on the Web. Back to the top SEARCH ENGINES A search engine
is a facility on the Web that allows you to find Web sites by
key word or words. There are two types of search engines: - A directory search engine
organizes listings of Web sites into hierarchical lists.
- A true search engine
uses software agent technologies to search the Web for key
words and places them into indexes.
If you'd like to see a fairly comprehensive list of
search engines, we recommend Netstrider
. Below we've listed just a few of the many search engines
you can find on the Web. Some search engines, such as Ask Jeeves, allow you to enter a
question. For example, you could ask "What's the tallest
mountain in North America?" (don't enter the quotes) Directory search engines, on the other hand, require that you
enter a list of key words. When entering a list of key words, you
can make use of a minus sign (-), plus sign (+), and quotes to
refine your search. For example, if you wanted to find Web sites
with information concerning the Miami Dolphins NFL football team,
you could enter: - "Miami Dolphins"
-- would find only those sites with the two listed key
words in that exact order
- Miami +Dolphins
-- would find only those sites with the two listed key
words regardless of their order
- Miami +Dolphins --mammal
-- would find only those sites with Miami
and Dolphins
as key words and would exclude any site that listed mammal
as a key word
Back to the top PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE, SHAREWARE, AND FREEWARE All over the Web, you can find software that's free or almost free. These types of software are called public domain software, shareware, and freeware. - Public domain software
is software that you can copy, distribute, and even modify
without obtain permission.
- Shareware
is software that you can "test drive" or "try before you
buy."
- Freeware
is software that is also public domain software, meaning that
you can use it as you wish free of charge.
Freeware and public domain software sound the same, don't
they? They actually are with one slight difference. Public domain
software was the first name created for free software that people
wanted to make available to anyone. When the term shareware was
coined to describe "try before you buy" software, freeware was
also coined to describe public domain software (Freeware sounds
sexier than public domain software.). However, with true public domain software you often get the
source code, allowing you change how the software works. You
often don't get the source code with freeware, so you may
not have the ability to change how it works. Below, we've listed just a few of the thousands of sites
that offer public domain software, shareware, and freeware. Back to the top FREE IMAGES AND BACKGROUNDS If you want free images and backgrounds to include in your
site, the Web offers more than you can imagine. We did a quick search for free images and backgrounds and
found over 100,000 sites. Of course, some provide questionable
stuff -- be careful. Below, you'll find links to just a few of the hundreds of
thousands of Web sites that offer free images and backgrounds.
Enjoy!! Back to the top BUYING SOFTWARE You can definitely find hundreds of places on the Web where you can buy software. At some of those places, depending on what software you buy, you can instantly download the software. At other places, and again depending on what software you buy, the software you buy will be shipped to you in the mail. Below, we've listed just a few of the many places on the Web where you can buy software. Back to the top VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language
(
VRML) allows you to create a virtual world in which users have the illusion that they are physically participating. There are many Web sites that you can visit to experience VRML or even learn how to program VRML sites for the Web. Many of the sites listed below also require you to download a VRML player or plug-in. Remember that a player is software that works outside of your Web browser and a plug-in is software that works within your Web browser. The Web3D Consortium is a collection of VRML
developers. Most VRML resources can be found at the Web3D Web site . VRML Players and Plug-Ins VRML Web sites VRML Programming Resources Back to the top 3-D Real three-dimensional
(
3-D) technology presents information to you in such a way that you have the illusion that the object you're viewing is actually in the room with you. 3-D is becoming more and more commonplace everyday. The view 3-D on the Web, click on the links below. Back to the top JAVASCRIPT JavaScriptis a scripting language that allows you to add interactivity and other features to a Web page. If you use JavaScript, you can build rollovers into your Web page and also create e-commerce shopping carts. To learn more about javaScript, click on the links below. Back to the top REGISTERING YOUR SITE ON SEARCH ENGINES You know how to use meta tags to identify your Web site's content to search engines (Chapter 11 I-Witness). We also showed you how to find Web hosts to put your Web site on the Web (Chapter 12 I-Witness). Now you'll want to make sure search engines will find your Web site when people search for key words. You can go to each Web search engine and submit your Web site's location and key information. We've listed some of these search engine pages for you: Search Engine Submission You'll notice that each of these search engines have very different policies and instructions. Google simply has you fill in your location and keywords. Yahoo! is more detailed in what it needs you to do. AltaVista has different levels for submissions: the more you pay the sooner your site will be indexed. You can still submit sites for free to AltaVista (like Google and Yahoo!), but it might take four to six weeks to be indexed. You should know that almost all free submissions to Web search engines can take a few weeks to a couple of months to show up on Web searches. If you pay to submit information, the process is much faster. Many businesses use search engine services. These are companies that submit your Web site to multiple search engines for you: Search Engine Submission Companies Back to the top | 
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