Finding the Information You Want

Abstract

The conventional way of viewing a Web page begins by typing its address into the browser and then hitting the “Enter” button. This Web page address is known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). This simple way to find what you want depends on knowing the URL of the Web page in the first place. We are bombarded daily by Web page addresses in magazines, on television commercials, billboards, and other forms of advertising. Often, these URLs are seemingly obvious. It is easy to predict that to visit the Web site for the Pepsi Cola company, one would type in http://www.pepsi.com (Figure 6.1). However, many of the Web pages have complex names such as the hypothetical http://www.mycompany. com/sales/newlistings. Not only are these addresses impossible to remember, but they are troublesome to write down and often not inherently obvious by the content of their name