11. Browsing and Searching the Web
In this chapter, you find out how to use a web browser to browse and search pages on the World Wide Web.
After you’ve connected to the Internet, either at home or via a public wireless hotspot, it’s time to get busy. The World Wide Web (www) is a particular part of the Internet with all sorts of cool content and useful services, and you surf the Web with a piece of software called a web browser.
Windows 10 includes its own web browser, called Microsoft Edge, that you use to browse the Web—as well as search it for fun and useful information.
Understanding the Web
Before you can surf the Web, it helps to understand a little bit about how it works.
Information on the World Wide Web is presented in pages. A web page is similar to a page in a book, made up of text and graphics. A web page differs from a book page, however, in that it can include other elements, such as audio and video, as well as links to other web pages.
It’s this linking to other web pages that makes the Web such a dynamic way to present information. A link on a web page can point to another web page on the same site or to another site. Most links are included as part of a web page’s text and are technically called hypertext links, or just hyperlinks. (If a link is part of a graphic, it’s called a graphic link.) These links are usually in a different color from the rest of the text and often are underlined; when you click a link, you’re taken directly to the linked page.
Web pages reside at a website. A website is nothing more than a collection of web pages (each in its own computer file) residing on a host computer. The host computer is connected full time to the Internet so that you can access the site—and its web pages—any time you access the Internet. The main page at a website is called the home page, and it often serves as an opening screen that provides a brief overview and menu of everything you can find at that site. The address of a web page is called a URL, which stands for uniform resource locator. Most URLs start with http://, add www., continue with the name of the site, and end with .com, .org, or .net.
No http://
You can normally leave off the http:// when you enter an address into your web browser. In most cases, you can even leave off the www. and just start with the domain part of the address.
Using Microsoft Edge
Microsoft includes the Microsoft Edge web browser in Windows 10. You can use Microsoft Edge for all your web browsing.
Open and Browse Web Pages
You launch Microsoft Edge from either the taskbar or the Start menu. Once launched, you can use Edge to visit any page on the Web.
Start to type a web page address into the Address box.
As you type, Edge displays a list of suggested pages. Click one of these pages or finish entering the web page address and press Enter.
Click the Back (left arrow) button beside the Address box to return to the previous web page.
Click the Forward (right arrow) button to move forward again.
Click the Refresh button to reload or refresh the current page.
Click the Home button to return to Edge’s Home page.
Pages on the Web are linked via clickable hyperlinks, typically presented with colored or underlined text. Click on a link to display the linked-to page.
Larger Text
If the text on a given web page is too small for you to read, Microsoft Edge lets you zoom in to (or out of) the page. Click the Settings and More (three-dot) button, go to the Zoom section, and click + to enlarge the page (or click – to make the page smaller).
Work with Tabs
Most web browsers, including Microsoft Edge, let you display multiple web pages as separate tabs, and thus easily switch between web pages. This is useful when you want to reference different pages or want to run web-based applications in the background.
Click the + next to the last open tab to open a new tab. (Alternatively, press Ctrl+T on your computer keyboard.) A new Home page opens.
Enter a URL into the Address box, select from one of your previously visited pages, or start a search from the Search the Web box.
Switch tabs by clicking the tab you want to view. (Alternatively, press Alt+Tab to move to the next tab.)
Click the X on a tab to close it.
Save Favorite Pages
All web browsers let you save or bookmark your favorite web pages. In Microsoft Edge, you do this by adding pages to the Favorites list.
Navigate to the web page you want to add to your Favorites list and then click the Favorites (star) icon in the Address box.
Confirm or enter a name for this page in the Name box.
Favorites can be organized in folders. Pull down the Folder list to determine where you want to save this favorite.
Click the Done button.
Return to a Favorite Page
To return to a page you’ve saved as a favorite, open the Favorites list and make a selection.
Click the Favorites button to display the Favorites panel.
Click the page or set of tabs you want to revisit.
Favorites Bar
For even faster access to your favorite pages, display the Favorites bar at the top of the browser window beneath the Address bar. Click the Settings and More button, click Favorites, click Show Favorites Bar, and then click Always.
Revisit History
Microsoft Edge makes it easy to see what pages you’ve recently visited—and return to any of those pages.
Click the Settings and More (three-dot) button to display the pull-down menu.
Click History and then click Manage History.
Pages are displayed in reverse chronological order. Click a page to reopen it.
Set Your Home Page
Microsoft Edge lets you set a Home page that automatically opens whenever you launch the browser or when you click the browser’s Home page. By default, Edge displays the New Tabs page, which you can customize with different layouts. You can also select a specific page on the Web to open as your Home page. (For example, you might want to set a news site, such as CNN, as your Home page.)
Click the Home button to open the current Home page. By default, this is the New Tab page.
Click the Settings (gear) button on the New Tab page.
Select a different layout for the New Tabs page—Focused, Inspirational, Informational, or Custom.
To select a different page for your Home page, start by clicking the Settings and More (three-dot) button to open the pull-down menu.
Click Settings to open the Settings page.
Click On Startup.
Click to select Open a Specific Page or Pages.
Click Add a New Page.
Enter the URL for the page you want to open.
Click Add.
Browse in Private
If you want to browse anonymously, without any traces of your history recorded, activate InPrivate Browsing mode in a new browser window. With InPrivate Browsing, no history is kept of the pages you visit, so no one can track where you’ve been.
Click the Settings and More (three-dot) button.
Select New InPrivate Window.
A new InPrivate Edge window opens, ready to accept any URL you input.
View a Page in the Immersive Reader
Some web pages are overly cluttered with advertisements and other distracting elements. You can get rid of these visual distractions by using Edge’s Immersive Reader, which also increases the size of the text on the page, making it even easier to read.
With the Immersive Reader, all the unnecessary items on a page are removed, so all you see is the main text and accompanying pictures. In addition, the Immersive Reader makes all onscreen text significantly larger, and there’s more “white space” all around. The result is, perhaps, the best way to view web pages if you have even slight vision difficulties.
Not All Pages
Not all web pages are available with the Immersive Reader. If the page can’t be viewed with the Immersive Reader, the Immersive Reader icon is not displayed.
Navigate to the page you want to read; then click the Enter Immersive Reader icon in the Address box.
The page displays without the unnecessary elements and increased text size for easier reading. Scroll through the page as normal to read the entire article.
The Immersive Reader can also use text-to-speech technology to read the page to you. Move your mouse to the top of the page to display the menu of options; then click Read Aloud.
Click Pause to pause the reading. Click Play to resume.
Click the X to exit Read Aloud mode.
Click the Exit Immersive Reader icon in the Address bar to return to normal view.
Print a Web Page
From time to time, you might run across a web page with important information you want to keep for posterity. While you can make this page a favorite, of course, you can also print it using your computer’s printer.
Click the Settings and More (three-dot) button.
Click Print to display the Print window.
Click the Printer list and select your printer.
Click the Copies list and select how many copies you want to print.
Scroll down and click the Pages list and select which pages you want to print (all or a range of pages).
Click the Print button to print a copy of this page.
Searching the Internet
There is so much information on the Web—so many web pages—that it’s sometimes difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for. The best way to find just about anything on the Internet is to search for it, using a web search engine.
Search Google
The most popular search engine today is Google (www.google.com), which indexes billions of individual web pages. Google is easy to use and returns extremely accurate results.
From within your web browser, enter www.google.com into the Address box and then press Enter. This opens Google’s main search page.
Enter one or more keywords into the Search box.
Press Enter or click the Google Search button.
When the results are displayed, go to the result you want to view and then click the link for that result. This displays the selected web page within your web browser.
Search Bing
Microsoft has its own search engine, called Bing (www.bing.com). It works pretty much like Google, and Microsoft would very much like you to use it.
From within your web browser, enter www.bing.com into the Address box and press Enter. This opens Bing’s main search page.
Enter one or more keywords into the Search box.
Press Enter or click the Search (magnifying glass) button.
When the results are displayed, click any page link to view that page.
Change the Default Search Engine
Microsoft Edge, like Google Chrome and other web browsers, lets you initiate searches directly from its Address box. When you enter one or more words into the Address box, Edge sends your search query to the Bing search engine. (If you do this in Google Chrome, Chrome sends your query to the Google search engine.)
If you’d rather use Google instead of Bing, you can easily change Edge’s built-in search function to default to the other search engine.
From within Microsoft Edge, click the Settings and More (three-dot) button.
Click Settings to open the Settings window.
Click Privacy and Services.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Address Bar.
Click the Search Engine in the Address Bar list and make another selection. (Google is one of the options.)
