SERVICES ON THE INTERNET

1. Electronic Mail (e-mail): this is the most popular service on the Internet today.  It allows you to send, receive and manage electronic messages (text, sound, video and graphics) and communicate with friends, family and businesses all over the world.

2. World Wide Web (www): popularly known as the web, is the main way of accessing information on the Internet.  The Web is based on pages of information called websites, which are linked and viewed by a web browser. Please note that the Internet and Web are NOT the same! The Web can be thought of as a subset of the Internet.

3. File Transfer Protocol (FTP): this is a set of rules for the transfer of files over the Internet.  It enables you to find an electronic file stored on a computer somewhere on the Internet and ‘download’ it to your computer

Download – taking a file from a web server or a computer on one part of the Internet and copying it to your computer.

Upload- this is sending files to other computers on the Internet or to websites.

4. Internet Relay Chat (IRC): allows users to go on-line at the same time and exchange text or audio messages in real time. The most popular IRC services are Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk etc.

5. Telnet – this is a remote log-in service provided by certain computer networks on the Internet.  You can search for and identify data on these computer systems.  The service is provided by companies and universities for home users to gain access to services.

6. Newsgroups: these are on-line discussion groups where users with common interests, anywhere in the world can share their views. The software for accessing newsgroups is usually included in your computer’s web browser

7. Bulletin Board Systems (BBS): An electronic message centre. Most bulletin boards serve specific interest groups. They allow you to dial in with a modem, review messages left by others, and leave your own message if you want. Bulletin boards are a particularly good place to find free or inexpensive software products.

8. Podcasting: Podcasts are digital media files (most often audio, but they can be video as well), which are produced in a series. You can subscribe to a series of files, or podcast, by using a piece of software called a pod-catcher. Once you subscribe, your pod-catcher periodically checks to see if any new files have been published, and if so, automatically downloads them onto your computer or portable music player for you to listen to or watch, whenever you wish.

Podcasting can be used for:
1. Music - Band promotional clips and interviews.
2. Talk Shows - Industry or organizational news, investor news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.

3. Training - Instructional informational materials.

4. Story Telling- This is used for telling stories to children or the visually-impaired.

9. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP): allows you to make telephone calls using a computer network.  VoIP converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal, e.g. Skype.

10. Blogs: A blog or web-log is a web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. The blog can be like keeping an online diary of what is going on in your life for others to read. It can be quite personal or used for more official purposes, like journalists writing about their experiences while on a particular job. Some people may just be able to read its contents, and in some cases, be able to respond or put up comments on the blog. Examples include: Google Blog, Blogger.com etc.

11. E-commerce: a term used for the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. The emergence of e-commerce as a way of customers purchasing has persuaded many companies to create an e-commerce web site and virtual shops or malls. E-Commerce consists of buying, marketing, selling and delivering services or goods by means of electronic transactions and activities. An example is www.amazon.com .

12. E-learning: the use of technology to enable people to learn anytime and anywhere. E-Learning can include training, the delivery of just-in-time information and guidance from experts.

13. Search Engines: a software application that finds websites using keywords.  If you don’t know the URL of the site you wish to view, or you wish to research a particular topic, you can use a search engine to locate it. Search engines have their own website. Some popular ones include:

Search Engine                                                   Address (URL)

AltaVista                                                             http://www.altavista.com

Ask Jeeves                                                           http://www.ask.com

Excite                                                                  http://www.excite.com

Google                                                                http://www.google.com

Infoseek                                                              http://www.infoseek.com

Lycos                                                                   http://www.lycos.com

MSN                                                                    http://www.msn.com

Yahoo                                                                  http://www.yahoo.com