Basic Web Lessons

This section will help you understand common terms and tools of the internet: Pop Up Ads, Page Not Found, Web Traffic, Stuck in a Page. Also, the Conclusion.

Surfing the Web is not without some snafus. Here are a few of the aggravations and what to do about them.

Pop Up Ads

Popup Ad
Many of the irritations and aggravations are caused by aggressive marketers who want to get your eyes on their information. One popular way to invade your screen is through pop ups. Pop ups are ads that appear without your request usually on top of the information that you want to view.

You can get rid of them by simply clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner of the box containing the ad. Another kind of ad has become increasing popular: the pop under ad. While you are surfing the Web, these ads open under your browser window. You may not see them until after you close your browser, at which time you may wonder where the ad came from. Again, simply close the window and ignore it.

Pop up and pop under ads are extremely aggravating. Remember, if you respond to a pop up or pop under ad, you are letting the marketers know that they have gotten your attention. If no one ever clicked on these ads, marketers would consider them a failure, and they would quickly disappear.

Page Not Found
You are already becoming familiar with the two major characteristics of the Internet — it is mammoth and dynamic. Often the dynamic quality of the Web can be frustrating. You may have a particular site that you need to find or return to. You carefully type in the URL and click Go. There is a message that appears, "Page Not Found." The most common reason for a Page Not Found error is a typo, so first check the address that you have typed to make sure that it is a valid address with no spaces or mistakes.

Occasionally, you will get a Page Not Found error simply because of a glitch or a burp in the system. Retry the address again. If you still get an error, try again later. If, after several tries, Page Not Found still appears, the page may have been removed from the Internet or moved to a new location making it inaccessible.

Web Traffic
Sometimes a Web page becomes inaccessible simply because there are too many people trying to visit it at the same time. This happened with several news sites after the September 11th terrorist attacks. If this is the case, you may get a "Page Not Found" or other error.

Also remember that during certain times of the day, there is more traffic on the Internet, making Web sites appears more slowly. You may want to avoid surfing during the very busy early evening hours.

Stuck in a Page

Open in New Window Menu
One of the goals of every Web site is to get visitors to come to their site. Sometimes Web creators use somewhat devious tricks to keep you looking at their Web sites. You will notice that occasionally when you click on a hyperlink, instead of being transported to a new page, you see the new page appear in the framework of the old page. No matter how many links you click on, you cannot escape from the first page. Dealing with this dilemma is easy. Just right-click on a hyperlink and choose Open in New Window, and you will have broken free.

Basic Browsing – Conclusion
Congratulations! You have completed the final lesson of our Basic Browsing topic. We hope you'll visit us again in the near future as we add new and expanded topics.

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