You've heard the phrase bandied about:  "surfing the Web."  It implies an effortless glide within a huge space, which is basically what you're doing when you browse Web pages:  moving from one site to another.  In Microsoft^® Windows^® 98, your surfboard is Internet Explorer.

Knowing where you are: Internet addresses
Each page on the Web is designated by an Internet address , known as a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL. It identifies the location of any Web page in a hierarchical path, in the same way that your computer stores files within directories or folders. Glance up to the toolbar above this page and you'll see the page's address contained in a thin horizontal box, the Address bar.

You can move from site to site by typing an address in the Address bar. You can also use buttons on the toolbar to move backward and forward through the sites you have visited during your current browsing session. See Moving backward and forward between pages to learn how.

The AutoComplete feature of Internet Explorer can save you some typing by anticipating long addresses from previous visits. See Saving time and effort in typing URL addresses to learn how.

If you want, you can open multiple windows, all showing different Web pages. See Opening a Web page in a new window to learn how.

Clicking hyperlinks
You can move from one Web page to another by clicking a hyperlink (usually just called a link) which has been built into text or a graphic on a page.  The hyperlink brings you to a different address which indicates a different location on the Web. It could be a completely different site or it could be a different spot on the same page.

When your mouse pointer moves over a link, Internet Explorer detects it and changes the pointer from an arrow to a pointing finger, poised to click. Hyperlinks are usually made obvious through the use of underlining or a different color for text that is "hot" or clickable. Often clickable links will also change in appearance when the pointer moves over them.

Knowing where to go: navigation
If moving around the Web randomly is easy, finding your way to specific information is somewhat trickier. When you read a book, one page leads directly to the following one. But on the Internet you must actively decide where to go next, because cyberspace has no direction to it. That's why people often speak of "browsing" the Web, as if they were in a bookstore browsing the shelves haphazardly. That's also why a software program that carries you around the network, such as Internet Explorer, is called a browser.

Fortunately, Internet Explorer also enables you to move through cyberspace in a purposeful way. The toolbar has buttons labeled Search, Favorites, and History:

• Search displays a selection of Internet search services, which enable you to search effectively either by using keywords or phrases or by looking in successively refined subcategories. See Searching the Internet effectively to learn how.
• Favorites enables you to quickly return to favorite sites you have specified. Windows 98 has a new feature which automatically tracks updates to your favorite Web sites and downloads them for viewing at your leisure. See Automatic Updates and Offline Viewing to learn how.
• History provides an organized list of sites you've visited days or weeks ago. See Finding your way back to a page you saw some time ago to learn how.

Once you have a little experience in cyberspace, you will find many Internet directory sites (sometimes called portals) that serve as helpful guides to what's where. For starters, try www.msn.com. If you find a site that you particularly like, you may want to make it your home page. That way, each time you open your browser, the page you have selected will appear first, providing a convenient daily starting point for your travels on the Web. See Setting your browser to open at a page of your choice to learn how.