The Mid-Hudson Regional Information Center


World Wide Web


  1. Where can I find a list of educational sites? It would be great if they were sorted by topic and not just all jumbled into one list.
    A. Have you visited the MHRIC Educational Links site? Pages are sorted by subject/curriculum area and there are sites there for everyone: teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, school psychologists, etc. There are even sites where you can find free things for teachers.

  2. My students and I really need to keep up on the daily news. Is there a site on the Web that will help us?
    A. Today's Papers is a daily news briefing compiled from the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the country's other major newspapers. If you want to keep up with what is going on in the US (and the world), Today's Papers is for you.

    Yahoo Full Coverage is another site that is an excellent place to turn for information about current events

  3. There are so many places to buy things that I get confused. How about a site that compares prices?
    A. There are several sites that will help you find the lowest price online. For the cheapest online prices for books, CD's, videos or DVD's, try Even Better. It will search the major online stores to find the best price for you.

  4. Is there a site to help me narrow my searches? Sometimes I just can't figure out exactly what I am looking for!
    A. You may want to try Ask, formerly called AskJeeves. You can do searches there in real English, in question format!

  5. What is a Web Ring? I recently heard the term but I am not sure what it is.
    A. A Web Ring is a group of sites about the same topic. They are linked together and you can go from one to the next by way of a navigation link that is usually at the bottom of the home page. There are rings for just about every topic you can think of. You can search for them at Web Rings.

  6. I do a lot of purchasing on the web. Are there any bargain sites?
    A. Most ecommerce merchants offer special discounts ... but only if you have a special discount code. Amazing Bargains has a collection of coupons and discount codes for most major online ecommerce sites. Before you purchase ANYTHING online, check out Amazing Bargains first. (Ecommerce means Electronic Commerce.)

  7. Someone told me about a site where I could search for others around the world sharing my birthday. Have you heard about it?
    A. It's called the Birthday Web. You can register with your birthday and probably receive email from people around the world when your special day comes.

  8. What are web cams and where can I find them?
    A. A cam, or webcam, is a video camera, usually attached directly to a computer, whose current or latest image is requestable from a Web site. You can view what the camera is seeing, just as if you were looking through the camera. Some will refresh your screen automatically and others will require you to click on a Reload button on the web page. There are many wonderful educational web cams out there, such as the Africam site and the SeismoCam that monitors earthquake activity in Burbank, California. You may want to preview the sites before sending your children off to view them. 

  9. What is the Internet anyway??
    A. The Internet is a vast system of computers that are "networked," or linked together, to exchange information. Through the use of computers connected to phone lines, the Internet makes it easy for people all over the world to communicate with each other. It is a shared global resource that is not owned or regulated by anyone.

    The Internet isn't just about data; it is an international community of people who share information, interact, and communicate. From the point of view of its users, the Internet is a vast collection of resources--people, information, and multimedia.

  10. What's a browser and why do we need one?
    A. The term is short for Web browser, a software application that resides on a computer and is used to locate and display Web pages. Browsers allow you to click on hypertext links to retrieve information via the Web, and offer additional features for navigating and managing the Web.

    Netscape's Navigator, often referred to simply as "Netscape," and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, often called simply "IE" are the most popular Web browsers. Both are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text, and can be used to view and interact with many multimedia formats, including sound, video, and other programs. Often a "plug-in" is required for these formats. If the computer you are using is equipped to allow it, you can hear and even talk.

  11. Why both IE and Netscape? Isn't one browser enough?
    Actually, there are over 200 browsers. For most people's purposes, one browser is sufficient. IE and Netscape are both excellent browsers. For a long time, Netscape was the more heavily used of the two. In the last couple of years, both have become very powerful. Netscape continues to offer Bookmark capabilities that IE's "Favorites" cannot match. Most other features are pretty equivalent in both of these browsers.

    The entire Web is accessible through both browsers.


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