The internet is amazing and easy to explore on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Here are some tips on how to get started.
The internet is the world’s largest library, shopping mall, information centre and social meeting point, all rolled into one. You can connect with friends and family, find information, buy goods, pay bills, play games, watch movies and much more over the internet. Best of all, you don’t need much to get started.
To access the internet, you’ll need an internet service, also called broadband. You can get this from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or from a mobile phone plan provider. When you are connected to the internet, you are online.
The other thing you need is a web browser program, also known as an application or app. Every desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone has one built in. Depending on the device, the web browser will be called:
If you click or tap on the icon for the web browser app on your computer or smart device, the browser will open.
Once the browser opens:
Some text and images on a web page are specially encoded to be web links. When you click on a web link, it will take you to a new web page, usually related to the text of the link or the contents of the image you click on. You can tell if something is a web link if:
While clicking on a link takes you to a new page, you can always go back to the previous page. Click on the browser's Back button (usually a left arrow, found in the top of the screen alongside the address bar) to return to the previous page.
You’re not expected to remember the address of every site on the internet! There are special websites known as search engines that will help you find websites on the internet. There are two ways to perform a web search:
The search engine will respond with web links to sites that it thinks may be of interest to you.