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Traveling on the Internet is mostly accomplished by "clicking" on links.

A link is an underlined work that when you put your mouse pointer over it and click the button once, it will take you somewhere. The standard of the Internet is that "links" are underlined. One thing that you will find our very quickly as you move around the internet, is that not all people follow the standards. 

Another method of traveling on the Internet is by typing in a specific URL.

A URL is the Internet equivalent of an address. As a matter of fact, the URL is often called an address. If you look at the top of your screen, you should see a white space with the following text: http://www.rockymtnweb.com/free/beginners/basic-email.htm .  That is the URL, or address, of this page. If you had a different address you wanted to go to, you can type that address in that white box and then hit the "enter" key. Your Browser program will access the Internet, locate that address, and then take you to that page. 

URLs can be thought of like telephone numbers. When you need to look up the number of a local Plumber, you go to a phone book, probably the yellow pages - unless you know the Plumber's name. To look up a URL on the Internet, you go to a "Search Engine".

There are many different search engines, and they all work slightly different - but basically the same. They will have a place for you to type in a topic, and something to click on, like a button that says "Search" or "Go". 

Something you should know about search engines is that many accept money for having a specific page turn up in the first couple of results returned from your search. This is not necessarily bad, but you will find out as you gain experience, that the reason that the company pays for their page to come up first, is usually because they are aggressively trying to sell you something. 

You should follow the links on a search engine page to learn what their policy is concerning the selling of top few returns of a search to better understand the the results of the information the search engine is giving you.

A few of the better places to search for places to go are http://www.google.com , http://www.msn.com , and http://www.yahoo.com. There are many other, and if you want to find them, just type in, or do a search for, 'Search Engines" on any of the three links above, and you will see just how many there are. Experiment. Have fun, and then stick with the one you feel most comfortable with.

Be sure to read Safety and the Internet so that you may enjoy your Web travels without concern or repercussions.