The Internet offers several online services due to its major advantage of being a global network. In this article, you are introduced to major Internet services which include teleworking, online communication services, search engines, and file transfers. Due to high Internet speed, all these services are instantly done within a very few seconds.
Teleworking
Teleworking is the use of the Internet to work from distance. The Use of teleworking depends on various factors such as quality of IT infrastructure, good computer literacy, type of work that can be done from any place with a computer equipped with necessary programs, employees with a professional attitude towards work, organization of work adapted to this operation mode, etc.
advantages of teleworking:
- reduced utility costs and employee’s transportation reimbursement,
- reduced time for traveling to and from work,
- adapting working conditions to personal habits-flexibility,
- possibility of working in the convenience of a person’s home (or other places that are not an office),
- lower stress level provided there is a good organization and coordination, i.e. the flow of information between employees is unconstrained.
- an excellent solution for people with disabilities or long-term illness, parents, or those who enjoy traveling.
disadvantages of teleworking:
- physical isolation - lack of direct social contact with colleagues not suitable for everyone - requires a certain dose of self-control and motivation
- less opportunity for advancement due to lack of traditional vertical hierarchy in the company, however, horizontal hierarchy is created, where no one is above anyone, but everyone has their own duties and obligations
- less emphasis on teamwork in the traditional sense, since tasks are done independently, physically isolated from others. It requires a heightened focus, due to lack of physical contact among team members, and emphasizes teamwork in terms of communication, information exchange. Each team member depends on others to perform their tasks. Each member is assigned his own task and they are all responsible for the task’s functionality overall. They must coordinate in order to complete a task jointly. It is evident that they can work in a team, regardless of the place of work, provided that they have excellent communication and exchange of information, good organization, and a professional attitude towards work.
Internet Communication Services
E-mail is the transmission of text messages via the Internet. Using attachments, users can exchange files like images, multimedia, documents, etc. The format of an e-mail address is username@domain name, e.g. mrjack@info.com or anchu.bi@gmail.com were “Mr. jack, anchu” a username, and “info.com” and “gmail.com” are the domain names. Each valid e-mail address must consist of a symbol “@” pronounced as “at”. Some email services are officially registered by known organizations while other email services are freely available from the free global mail servers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. The most common e-mail features include:
- folders where emails are stored. They include inbox, trash, sent, outbox, spam, etc.
- address bars where the email address is written. They include from, to, cc, bcc, etc.
- the subject bar where the title or subject of the email is written.
- Attachment for uploading files of various formats.
- Sign-in and Sign-out buttons for login and logout from e-mail services.
- Address book which contains the email addresses of your contacts.
Instant Messaging
The Instant Messaging (IM) service is used for instant
message exchange and real-time communication. Besides textual communication and
video conferencing, they allow file transfer as well. Some of the popular IM
services are WindowsLiveMessenger, Skype, and GoogleTalk.
Voice over Internet Protocol
The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a term for
technology that enables digitalization and transfer of sound (and multimedia
sessions) over the Internet. Therefore, it enables sound communication much
like the telephone call. In short, the VoIP protocol enables audio/video
communication between users.
RSS Service
The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a set of web formats,
used by web pages that are being constantly updated, considering that by using
RSS, new information, articles, etc. can be published. RSS enables us to, with the use of appropriate software, read new titles and access news summaries. Users
can, with appropriate software, obtain news from various portals and receive
information without the need to visit all of them independently, while
publishers can distribute news easily to end-users who are monitoring their RSS
feeds/channels.
Blog Service
The Blog (weblog) is a form of Internet media in which users can re-post or write their opinion on any topic. It can be personal (a form of Internet diary), thematic, or in the form of journals. Blogs are popular because end-users do not need to have advanced computer knowledge, or knowledge of webpage creation, in order to be present on the Internet and write about various topics, i.e. state their opinion. Blogging has greatly facilitated the exchange of interests, ideas, opinions, and contributed to the realization of the human right to free expression. Some use blogs to share their art, personal aesthetic, or to collect virtual clippings from websites online.
Entries published on blogs are called posts, which may allow space below for visitors to leave their comments. Besides text, it is possible to exchange multimedia files, such as photos or videos. In order to share your texts, pictures, video clips, etc., it is necessary to create a personal account on websites that offer this type of service. In case you simply wish to browse the content, it is not necessary to open a personal account.
Podcast (POD - Personal On-Demand + Broadcast) is a digital
file containing audio or video content. It is distributed over the Internet
using RSS technology.
Virtual Communities
The term “virtual community” encompasses a group of people who communicate via social networks, forums, IM services, and blogs. It is called a community, since they are a collection of people who participate in a group of their interests, thus forming a virtual community, because it does not involve physical contact, but is carried out by means of ICT technologies. Social Networks are free online services that provide users with various forms of presentation and communication. Some of the more popular social networks are MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+.
Forum is a service that allows users to exchange opinions. It can be compared to bulletin boards on which participants leave their messages, while others leave their comments. Examples of forums are Reddit, TED Conversations. Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) are network games, played by a large number of players via the Internet. One of the sub-genres of MMO is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), and its most popular representative is a game called “World of Warcraft”.
The chatroom is a webpage or part of a webpage that allows real-time information exchange. Unlike the instant messaging (IM) writing software, it does not require computer installation, only a web browser, and Internet connection.
The most popular service for video clip sharing is YouTube.
Also, there are Internet services for picture or photograph exchange services include Photobucket, Flickr, lolcats, etc.
Virtual Communities & Social Networks overview
Another example is an online community. In online communities, you open a user account and fill it out with more or less personal information. You will often have the opportunity to read that someone got fired for leaving negative comments on sites, such as Twitter, about their boss or a company they work for. Another characteristic of the Internet is that once you publish some information, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove it. For that reason, it is necessary to be careful when leaving personal data on social networks. One should avoid sharing information regarding date and place of birth, home address, phone number, planned vacation, and use security settings to restrict access to your user profile.
Also, be careful with the terms of use agreement to which you agree when you open an account because that very agreement defines how the company - owner of the social network, can handle the information that you released on their social networks. Also, it is also necessary to bear in mind that, when communicating with someone over the Internet, you do not really know who that person really is. It is very easy to impersonate someone, and that fact further accentuates the need for caution when giving any personal information.
Parents must particularly be careful because children are
easily deceived. How to protect children on the Internet is a special issue of
great importance. As a society, we need to pay special attention to it.
One of the main features of the Internet is information
flow. That is why information is valuable, and today companies are looking for
ways to obtain information via the Internet. For instance, Google does not
charge for the use of the search engine, however every time you enter something
into a search engine, you inform the search engine what you want to know, what
your interests are. Using this information, Google will display ads that might
be of interest to you and will gain revenue through advertising. Other examples
of search engines include Yahoo, Mamma.com, Wikipedia, Altavista, etc.
Google search is usually used in its non-advanced form, just putting the keyword inbox and hitting enter. However, Google offers advanced tips, tricks, and techniques in Google that can be used to achieve custom or filtered searches in Google.
There are many hidden secrets in Google search, knowing those tips, tricks and techniques can make you the master at doing Google search, as you will be able to focus on your search by narrowing it down with advanced Google operators. This kind of search is known as the Google Advanced Search technique and tricks. Google advanced search is used for specific complex searches, which are not easily accessible through simple Google search.
Google's advanced search has more accurate and filtered results than normal searches. Google advanced search works on special input queries. Google's advanced search option provides more favorable results in less time with accurate results. It is accessed through a link of https://www.google.com/advanced_search. You can search using page title, anchor text, URL, missing words, time, date, TO or OR. You can also translate using syntax: translate [word] to [language] eg. Translate [jambo] to [english]. You can also look for comparison, perform quick calculation, online timer, search for title, text in a site, search time, know your IP address, convert counting, search-related sites, search the origin of word, specific complex search, search by file type, search by domain extension, search on a specific site, find recipes, search site cache, search for an exact phrase, online stopwatch.
File Transfer Services
Online File Transfer
File transfer is the process of copying or moving a file from one computer to another over a network or Internet connection. It enables sharing, transferring, or transmitting a file or a logical data object between different users and/or computers both locally and remotely. A File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard Internet protocol for transmitting files between computers on the Internet over TCP/IP connections. FTP is a client-server protocol that relies on two communications channels between client and server.
Cloud Services
One of the easiest ways of online file storage is to use
cloud services. There are various available free cloud services.
The use of cloud services allows you to access your files online
from anywhere and free of charge.