Analyzing Your Results

A common complaint is that Internet resources move around or disappear altogether. Others are poorly documented and provide few clues concerning the author or sponsor, source for information provided, etc. One method of finding this information is through shortening the site url.

Parts of a URL

Remember that Internet addresses are made up of a number of sections or levels. They are:

• Protocol

  Example: http

  Protocols are standards or procedures that allow computers to communicate with one another. Besides http, other commonly used protocols you see in urls include ftp, gopher, and telnet.

• Domain

  Example: library.webster.edu

  The domain name (sometimes called host name or server name) tells you where to go on the Internet. Previously we saw how domain is sometimes used to mean the type of site (e.g. government, commercial).

• Path

  Example:nethelp.html

  The path or filename tells you where in the domain or on the server the information is located. Personal pages done by an individual often have paths that begin with a tilde (~) such as http://domain.edu/~smith/filename.html

Shortening a URL to Find Additional Information

If you get a message that the page you tried to link to was not found, it may be because the last part of the URL, the path, has changed. Try shortening the URL by deleting the last section of it. For example, if http://library.webster.edu/libinfo/libnews.html is not available, try just http://library.webster.edu. You may find that the file is now in a different directory, or it may have been removed from the Internet altogether.

This technique can also be helpful in cases where an Internet document does not clearly indicate its author or source. Shortening the URL from right to left will often take you to the author's home page.

Of course, you are not stuck with the results from the first search you do. Many search engines offer ways that you can modify your search to achieve better results, a topic we'll discuss on the next page.