Chapter 5

Did you ever wonder, "are there any other tools I can use to research or find specific information on the internet"?

Well, yes there is actually. Let me explain a few of them to you.

First of all, there is a "portal". A portal is kind of like a gateway to a web sites individual topic of information. For example, a training and education vendor may have a portal for the students to go to for test taking, videos, and audio training. Portals can be for many uses, and for a variety of viewers. There are consumer portals, for weather, sports, shopping,  etc. Some portals can even be personalized, like a homepage. My Verizon, My Yahoo!, and My MSN are only just a few examples of the personal portals. Corporate portals allows employees, vendors and customers to have access to certain information at a corporate website. Employees can search for job opportunities, so they can advance their careers. Customers can check into products or services. Vendors can do business tranactions with another business via a portal to the website.

Before the internet came along. People would have to rely on the radio, newspapers, magazines, and television for the latest updated news. Which was usually hours or even days old. Today we can use the internet to get updated information, usually up to the minute. This is a great supplement to the old way of being informed. Today we also have streaming media. This is a film or audio clip of a very recent event that was just captured and placed onto the internet for everyone to see.




Another great online resource is the online encyclopedias available. These are usually free to the public, however, you may need to set up an account to view an article in it's entirety. As well as with the encyclopedia, online dictionaries are available to the public. Another rather interesting resource is the online reference desk. LibrarySpot and iTools, and the Internet Public Library are sources of information for just about any question you might have to ask.








Looking for a site for health /fitness and dieting? There are plenty of those on the internet. WebMD and Discovery health are just two of the many sites. Also, if you want to you can pay your bills online, do your banking transactions, and even invest your money online. You can check your credit score at a number of different websites.