Module 4 Tasks

Tools for the Web

Downloading tools/plug-ins

• Shockwave/Flash plug-ins

I already had the Flash plug-in installed, however not the shockwave plug-in. I decided to install the shockwave plug-in as well as these tools are increasingly important for effective web site viewing and utilisation. We designers and creators are using these technologies more and more with the increase of faster internet speeds.

Without these plug-ins installed, we can not view flash or shockwave animations and applications and this will effect out web experience.

• Search Manager/Combiner- Copernic

I downloaded Copernic as it seemed to be the most comprehensive and user friendly. The beauty of this application is that you can search your entire computer as well as other things such as emails and also the web, directly from your desktop. This saves time in completing multiple searches. Searching is made even easier with a search bar located within the tool bar of your browser, so you don't have to move to a separate screen.

• Offline Browser/Copier

These tools are great, and i have needed a tool like this in the past when i have not had access to the internet, but wanted to view a web page. It is a great idea if you know you are going somewhere that may not have the internet, and where you need to be able to view we pages.

I think that this type of program would benefit business people as they can still complete work and research site when they are traveling, or when there is not internet available. Students can also utilise this as they can copy the information to their computer, and then recall it at a later stage when studying etc.


Searching the Web

Search Engine Task

Advanced Internet Users

• Google- approx 123 000 000 hits
• Copernic- 47 Hits

There was a massive difference in hits between the two. From what i can see, Google has brought up pages which had either 'Advanced', 'Internet' or 'Users' within their meta data and page data. Copernic seemed to only bring up the results which contained all 3 words within their meta data or page data.

At a first glance, Copernic would appear to be the one with perhaps the most promising results, however you would have to look into the results further to make a better judgement.

Top 5 results for each search

Google

1. Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE

2. Advanced User's Internet Training Resources

3. Advanced Internet Users, School of Continuing Education ...

4. News @ Cisco: China Supports Advanced Applications for Internet ...

5. StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats

Copernic

1. Advanced Internet Users Tutorial- CIESE (alltheweb.com, ask.com, AOL search, Lyco, Yahoo, Alta Vista)
2. Designing for advanced users (alltheweb.com, Yahoo, Alta Vista)
3. Internet users judge web sites in less than a blink/CNET News.com (MSN web search)
4. The Occasional Company (Enhanced Interactive)
5. Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE- Saving Web Pages (ask.com, Lycos)