1 What is the Internet?

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computers and computer networks. It has two main areas: Websites (such as this one) and Email (like sending through the Post, but much faster, cheaper, and a lot less hassle once you know how!)

There are a huge variety of Websites, but they can generally be slotted into a few categories:

1. Information sites. On these, you can find out information on anything from movie times and accommodation prices to far more serious research – on any topic you want!
2. Retail sites. On these, you can purchase items, for example books, clothes, furniture, etc.
3. Interactive sites. On these, you as the Computer User (or ‘User; for short) interact – either with other people (as in, use forums and social networking sites) or against yourself / the computer (as in, playing computer games or brain games on the computer).

Some websites (such as this one) fall into more than one of these categories. For instance, GoodOldTalk.com is an ‘Interactive site’ when you’re in the ‘Talk about… Topics’ or the ‘Talk about… Me’ sections. However, if you’re in the ‘Computer Help Guides’ or the ‘Talk about… Clubs’ (coming in Stage II of the site) sections, GoodOldTalk.com is more of an ‘Information Site’.

There are also a large number of Email services; most free but some not. For more information on using Email, please read through the article/s on ‘Email’.

To search the internet for the right sort of site you want, you need to use some sort of a ‘Search Engine’. The most popular of these are probably Google and Yahoo. Use simply type your request into their ‘SearchBox’, click on ‘Search’ (sometimes called ‘Go’, depending on your Search Engine) and then a list of sites will appear for you to scroll through and select the one/s you want. Once you have looked at a site, use the ‘Back arrow’ at the Top Left of your screen to go back to the Search Results page. The site/s you have looked at now appear in Purple instead of Blue.

On the GoodOldTalk home page, there is a Google Search Box on the Top Left, next to the ‘Set us as your Home Page’ button. This is set to ‘SafeSearch’, which means that it filters out the junk sites.

For more information on searching the Internet, please read through the article ‘Tips on searching the Internet’. At the bottom of each article, you'll see arrow buttons, at the right and at the left, to scroll through the articles.