The italicized sentences are to be translated into Ukrainian.

USES OF THE WEB

The fact that the Web is being widely used for multiple purposes is without question. But before overviewing its benefits it is worth considering one fact that became a crucial event for it. The question is about a new mode of presenting information. Before, over the Internet and other wide area networks, the text has been the main mode of presentation. The Web changed that. Now the information could be presented in graphical format, complete with font choices and incorporated drawings, photographs, tables and other multimedia elements. These graphical elements offered different kinds of information and information providers were able to search precisely suitable elements. The result of these innovations is that the Web's capabilities are increasing, its information becomes more comprehensible too. Of course the work has to be done right and those who care about their information perfectly know how to do it.

The Web clients become more and more numerous to display fully formated word processing and desktop publishing files.

One of the first to use the Web was science. Dissemination of research and scientific findings has always been one of the purposes of the Internet and of the Web project at CERN in Switzerland. Today the Web is used as a tool of exchanging scientific information as it has been considered to do. But perhaps more important is that the Web is used to make research discoveries available to the general public, most of this information being presented so that it becomes as easy understandable as possible. Publicly funded research agencies are interested in making their work known to the public, in finding new ways to place their information. Booklets and pamphlets distributed through mailing are expensive and usually ignored. The Web is

the best way out of the problem. Now on a well-designed HTML page a user can demonstrate its activities graphically and these pages can be updated inexpensively and frequently.

Providing services for clients as to technical documents, software patches and answers to frequently asked questions is another benefit of the Web using. Customers with a Web access are able to take care of their own information needs without resorting to the help of supplier's support staff.

Many other services of this kind are likely to be developed for making the Web more friendly to users. For example, the possibility of Web based tutorials offering step-by-step procedures for installation a new piece of equipment or for programming your VCR. Well designed, this service is certain to be better than a usual, tech support phone call because it shows, rather than tells, the customer what to do and how to do.

It should be noted that these Web applications are not a one-way link. Customers need to know that they are not forgotten and that there is a place where they can learn from the experiences of other customers. It becomes possible due to HTML forms to provide a feedback and to answer questions on products. The latter is especially valuable in products ordering. Now there are many who are interested in this service rendered by the Web, and it is despite of the discussion as to the Web's security for credit cards use.

Why is the Web shopping so attractive? Imagine you can find a variety of products ranging from flowers to books for your music CDs, and all this by browsing through the Web and without leaving your home. Moreover, unlike home shopping on TV, you needn't sit through the other products that are of no use for you in order to find the item your have been looking for.

Shopping on the Web is like walking into a shopping mall (by the way, "mall" is the name given to many Web offerings). There is only one thing for the customer to do: click on the shop you want, turn on the online graphic to see a picture of the chosen product and address to the order forms page to do the ordering. Such services are expected to be more often used.

At last, such spiritual part of human activity as creative arts is not aside from the Web pages. People in creative arts are often regarded as adherent to traditional forms of arts and resistant to new technologies. However, it would be an erroneus opinion, because throughout the history people of arts have always been among the first to adopt new technologies to their work. Such examples as printing press or MIDI witness it.

Therefore, it is quite natural that the artists consider WWW to be a new medium suitable for presenting their works and for linking up with their colleagues. Now we see galleries of new visual art to appear online or the presentation of artworks that are asked to be evaluated by the Web users. As to creative writing, it becomes frequent on the Web and includes interactive stories, illustrated texts and even Web-based drama. The Web attracts artists by an inexpensive way of presenting their work and a built-in global audience. This is something about which artists could only dream before.

Of course, there are some arts that couldn't be placed on Web sites. But it may be a matter of future.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 831