The World Wide Web is Internet-based Hypertext. Documents are prepared using HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) in which links, usually colored, provide the connectivity. "Underneath" or "Behind" each link is an address.
The WWW browsers Netscape and Mosaic are extremely versatile. You can look at text files, images, movies or hear sounds using one application. In addition, as evidenced above, these applications allow the user to interact with nearly all Internet protocols. The WWW home page for the NOAA GOLD site is given below. Again, this will not be identical to the FTP and GOPHER GOLD sites referenced above. Spend some time getting familiar with the way in which information is presented.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc.html
There are thousands of WWW home pages and the rate of addition of new resources continues to increase on a monthly basis. It is imperative that you develop some way to wade through this material or pretty soon you feel like the tourist who drove 500 miles to see Big Bend National Park, looked at Santa Elena Canyon from the road, took a picture from the road and said "...we've seen it all .... let's go back".
The following link will take you to a list of Internet Search Engines. Several questions follow which you should attempt to answer making use of the searching abilities of these engines. Take a little time to read the material which accompanies each search engine as they differ in what they search on!
anon.search
Internet Resources
The following are among the more widely referenced internet links that contain material of interest to geoscientists.
P. Ingram's Virtual Earth
Comments Welcomed! jbutler@uh.edu
T. Smith's OnLine Resources for Earth Scientists (ORES)
Try Geosciences Resources.html to get a sense of the wealth of information available.