1998 
The Connacht Sentinel, Tuesday, December 15, 1998 (page 8)
After the turkey - why 
not try surfing the Net!
Once you have established an Internet account of you own (as described last week), the World Wide Web is your oyster.  Fire up your browser (Explorer or Netscape) and away you go.  All you need is the ability to point and click with the mouse. But, with so many websites to choose from, where do you start? 

Pages on the Web have links (underlined text or brightly-coloured buttons) to other pages of information.  To go from one page to the other, you only need to click on a link.  That page will have further links, and so it goes on - you follow whatever interests you. 

Often you will start off looking for one thing and end up with something completely unrelated - it's easy to get side-tracked.  But that's one of the joys of surfing; you never know what you might find or where you'll end up.  It's also one of the drawbacks for newcomers - it can be difficult, at the beginning, to get your bearings in the vastness of the Web. 

What newcomers need is a place to start that they can become familiar with and can come back to.  That not only helps with orientation but a good site will also provide lots of links to explore. 

My advice is to start with your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) website and explore it thoroughly.  That way you'll learn what they have on offer and, by the time you have exhausted their links, you will be well able to surf on your own.  The ISP pages are at: 

www.iol.ie (Ireland On-Line) 
www.indigo.ie (Indigo) 
www.tinet.ie (Telecom Internet) 

You can visit any or all of them, not just the one you have an account with. Try them out. 

In a short article such as this, it's only possible to describe a few websites, so I'll highlight a few Galway sites, one or two national sites and a few in the USA.  Some of these are well known and some not the aim here is to give you a flavour of what's available if you're new to the Web and want to have a go over Christmas. 
 

The Irish Emigrant - www.emigrant.ie 
If you have family of friends living or working away from home, give them the gift of the Irish Emigrant this Christmas.  It'll cost you (or them) nothing and every week they will get a great newsletter by email with all the news from Ireland in a convenient and easy-to-read format. 

And it's not only for people abroad anymore - it's a great way for anyone to keep up with news, sport, business news, book reviews, job opportunities and a whole lot more.  Drop in and have a look.  It's published here in Galway and reaches people all over the world.
The Salthill Air Show - welcome.to/thesalthillairshow 
Not very seasonal, perhaps, but this is another Galway site worth a visit.  It was pointed out to me during the week and I had a look.  Lots about the show, about the pilots and their bases, and, of course. about planes of all sorts.  Complete with video clips of fly pasts.  There's plenty to see and it's well worth a visit.  Roll on July 4,1999. 
 

Heritage Ireland - heritageireland.ie 
A new site that looks promising.  I've not had time to peruse it properly yet, but it looks good and it's on my own list of sites to visit. 
 

TechTV - www.techtv.ie 
If you've been following this TV show on RTE, have a look at this site. Although the current series has finished, they provide very useful Christmas links right now.  This is the place to go for that last-minute email, if you've left it too late to post a letter to Santa. 
 

The Internet Movie Database - www.imdb.com 
This is one of my own all-time favourite sites, and it's one that I keep going back to.  If you have any interest in the movies, check if out.  Be sure to try their search facility. It's wonderful. 
 

Cool Sites - www.coolsiteoftheday.com 
Cool sites goes back a long way and aims to highlight good sites on the Web.  Right now they are accepting nominations for the sites of the year so it has lots of great links to follow.  The IMDB (mentioned above) is nominated but you should also have a look at the new Star Wars site. A good one, but some of the trailer clips provided are 25Mb in size (BIG) and would take weeks to download!  May the force be with you. 
 

Britannica Online - www.eb.com and dinosaurs.eb.com 
Lots to see here, including a great Dinosaur exhibition right now.  The editors have also provided links to other web resources, so it's another good jumping off point.  It you want all that the site provides, though, you'll have to subscribe after the trial period. 

www.furby.com 
www.nintendo.com 
www.playstation.com 

If any of these electronic wonders show up under the Christmas tree in your house, you'll be glad to know that they each have their own site.  What more could you want? 

Once you've had a look around, take yourself over to a search site and look for what interests you. Sport, movies, health, entertainment - the list is endless. 

Searching - 

If you want to find something specific, try one of these search sites.  Just type in what you're looking for and then try to find it in the mountain of information you get back.  Search sites have so much information now that it's worth while reading their help or advanced search pages.  That way you can specify your search criteria more precisely and have a better chance of finding the information you want.  There are lots of other search sites, too! 
 

Gaiway Online - www.galwayonline.ie 
To save you the bother of remembering these links, they're all provided on Galway Online (www.galwayonline.ie).  Just look for the Sentinel links page, and click away to your heart's content. 

BTW, watch out for a new series starting in the Sentinel early in the New Year. 

Happy surfing and when you find sites you really like let me know. Have a wonderful Christmas. 

- Robert Smyth (info@galwayonline.ie)

 
 

 
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