The Williamsburg Regional Library

Major categories of online shopping. Early days of web-mostly computers and books - Amazon. Since then most big catalog retailers online – LLBean, Landsend, Crate and Barrel, etc. Also merchants like JC Penney, Macy’s, and Wal-Mart are online. Can purchase pharmaceuticals through drugstores, make travel plans and reserve hotel rooms online.

Two things you should be prepared to do if you are online shopping: Use you credit card and have an email account.

Online Transactions

o Women/sweaters/thumbnails/short sleeve/cashmere jewel neck

o Sample image/zoom/change colors/try on

o Order – cart – ship to someone else. Gift box.

o Before proceeding to checkout items, note the http web address. In secure mode it shows https in address bar and padlock icon in system try.

· Don’t ever enter personal information such as account numbers, social security, etc, unless in secure mode.

· Be aware that even in secure mode, there is a possibility that hackers could steal the information.

o Enter nickname, shipping information, gift note, billing address. Validates credit card instantaneously. Receive summary of your order with opportunity to cancel or change it. Click to order. You’ll get a confirmation that you should print out.

Go to amazon.com

o First major online merchant, still one of the largest. Amazon is a virtual store – no phone number to call, no physical locations. Amazon started by selling books and now offers electronics, music, clothing, kitchenware, and more.

o Amazon offers discounts on most of their books but you pay shipping costs. Sometimes they offer free shipping.

o Browse vs. search

· Search Ella Fitzgerald music. Can read reviews, download a free mp3 song. Can add to your wish list.

*******Always remember to log out of your account if you are using a public terminal.

How to Find Places to Shop

www.shopping.com - compare prices; get consumer ratings for products and for stores.

Top five in selected categories: blenders, camcorders, digital cameras, . . .
Browse categories – health/blood pressure monitors/select by prices/read store ratings.
Example: Search for waffle irons

If you know the name of a company - how do you find their website?

Name is usually obvious-they want you to be able to find them. Ex: www.target.com
Use a search engine such as www.google.com

type penney in the search box. Google searches the Internet for the most popular website with that word.
Go to Froogle, linked from google’s web page

Type in the name of any product

Privacy and Security

Privacy – use of information about you
Security – protection of sensitive information about hackers

Go to www.safeshopping.org

Database: An organized collection of information that can be accessed through a computer network.

Directory: A catalog of sites by subject.

Dragging: The process of moving an object by clicking on it with the left mouse button, &, while holding the button down, move the object to its desired location & release.

E-mail: Electronic messages sent between computers that are connected on a network.

HTML: (HyperText Markup Language) A set of commands & rules for encoding files on the Internet.

Home Page: Usually the first page you see at a Web site, it is the site's main page.

Hyperlinks: Text or images on a Web page that link you to another web page or a different part of the same page. Hyperlinks are usually underlined & a different color than other text on the same page, & the mouse cursor will change into a pointed finger when you place the mouse over them.

Internet: A diverse set of interlinked world-wide computer networks.

Mouse: A hand held input device that allows users to point & click to make selections on the screen

Search Engine: A software program that searches for information on the Internet based on your search criteria. Two examples are Yahoo ( www.yahoo.com ) & Google ( www.google.com ).

URL: ( Universal Resource Locator) An address on the Internet. You type a URL into your browser to visit a website. An example is www.wrl.org.

Web Browser: A software program for viewing & accessing information on the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator & Internet Explorer are the most widely used & popular Web Browsers today.

World Wide Web: The largest collection of information available online through the Internet