This page intends to be a guide to some
features of the World Wide Web and lists some links on a variety of subjects. They
are listed here to create another useful page, albeit one which is unrelated to
the UK. Search Engines
Do you know the difference between a
search engine and a directory or know what a crawler is? Search Engine Watch can answer these questions
and has an excellent table of comparison listing the different characteristics of the
major search engines. Whether you use search engines simply to find information or whether
you design your own sites and want to learn about submitting sites to the search
engines, Search Engine Watch is an excellent source of information.
Submitting Sites to Search Engines
If you create your own web pages, you need to submit them to Search Engines and
directories if surfers are to find your pages. You can visit each search engine separately
at the addresses listed in Search Engines and submit your site.
However, there are sites that will submit your site for free to the major search engines
on your behalf which obviously saves you much time and effort.LinkExchange, BeeSeen
and AddMe will all submit your sites to the main search
engines free of charge. Each also offer a range of other services and are worth a visit.
LinkExchange In
addition to offering free submission to the major search engines, LinkExchange run a free banner network where you
can advertise your site on other sites via a banner. For every two visitors to your site,
you earn one credit which means one exposure of your banner on another site. Your site
also appears in the LinkExchange directory. You also get free statistics on the number of
visitors per day for every page on which you display a LinkExchange banner. This is a
valuable resource for those who can't afford commercial webspace and its associated stats
feedback. |
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LinkExchange
also run an excellent free daily Ezine, the Link Exchange Digest. An Ezine is a regular
newsletter which you subscribe to (for free or a fee) via your email address. It may be
daily, weekly or monthly and may be on any subject and they normally include articles
submitted by subscribers. The Link Exchange Digest covers general web subjects such as
Search Engines and how to market your site on the web. Banner Networks While
LinkExchange offer a Banner Network for the whole Web, IC-UK,
Impressionz, Hyperbanner & UK Banners all offer the same free service for UK
sites only.
Browsers It
has been said that there is a browser war. There may be as far as Microsoft & Netscape
are concerned, but what concerns most of us is which version of Explorer or
Navigator/Communicator we have as sites which segregate traffic according to browser
version are increasingly common. The latest version of Microsoft's Explorer is 5
whilst Netscape's Communicator current version is 6. These may be downloaded for free at
the following sites: Explorer; Communicator.
Web Rings Search Engines followed by UK
Internet Directories are probably the most common methods of finding new sites on a
particular subject. A third method is to check WebRing
to discover if somebody has organised a webring on that subject. Webrings are literally a
ring of websites on a particular subject maintained by a volunteer who is responsible for
adding new sites.
Downloading Software One advantage of the web is the
availability of free software which you can download immediately to your PC. In addition
to freeware, there is shareware whereby you can download a trial version for free and if
you like it, you can buy and register a full version at a later date and commercial where
you are obliged to pay for it prior to delivery.
The following sites offer free, shareware and commercial downloads: Download.com, Softseek.com,
Microsoft, Netscape
and Tucows. |
