As mentioned above, because my database is "Web Sites For Being
Shocking", there is virtually no information in veronica or gopher-space
about "web sites". So instead of using the language "web site" I
modified it to mean all of the Internet. I did this because the World
Wide Web (WWW) where web sites are located is the multi-media component
of the Internet. But before the WWW came to be, there were only text
based components of the Internet such as Lynx. Through searching I
found that people don't need a multi-medium
(the WWW) for being shocking. Here is just a few of the results I found
while searching through Veronica at Psi.net.
Although these five links were searched using "Lynx" and not not
Netscape, they all had URL's that are all handled by Netscape. All these
links can be accessed by Lynx by using the "g" command and typing in the
same URL that is used here.
High Weirdness by E-Mail
This link basically shows a very extensive annotated list of other sites
where you can find information about shocking things from "Drugs Man!" to
"Paganism and Magick Occultism."
Gross and
Disgusting
Here you will find just how shocking one can be in a text-only based
format. This is a gopher menu that will show you 5 gopher sites that
will guarantee to disgust, offend, and perhaps amuse you. You have just
been warned.
sex
This is perhaps the most shocking gopher site I came upon while searching
gopher-space. This is basically a personal add from some guy looking for
girls. He obviously titled his add using "sex" to attract certain people.
This link is not meant to advertise this guy's desires, but to show how
the Internet can be used for stuff like this.
Security #3: Pedophiles and Porn gmartin@FREENET.COLUMB...
Re: Security #3: Pedophiles and Porn nwa@OCEGR.FR
These two links shows how one person can start off on a very hot topic and
how another person responds to it. These two links clearly show how the
Internet, even without visual and audio effects can bring about
discussion on very shocking topics.
Comparison of Search Formats
Differences
Perhaps the biggest difference between searching in Lynx and
Netscape is the obvious fact that Lynx and Netscape are two very
different types of Internet browsers. Whereas Lynx supports text only
documents, Netscape supports text, graphics, sound, video, and even
animation. Basically, Lynx can be seen as a predecessor to Netscape.
Because of this, it is understandable that Lynx would be considered "old"
when compared to Netscape. One example of this is when I searched for the
topic Body Piercing. A search in Lynx using Veronica at Psi.net produced
only 17 results. Most of these results were either secured so only certain
people are allowed access to them, or they did not even exist! A search
in Netscape using Lycos produced
77,269 results for body piercing. The main reason for this is that Lycos
is such a powerful search engine, much more powerful than Veronica or
Gopher, that Lycos indexes and searches for the first several hundred
words in a document. The search engines that Lynx employs indexes only
the title of a document, severely limiting its searching capabilities.
This is not to say that Lycos and Netscape are better than Veronica and
Lynx. But it is a fact that Netscape has all the capabilities of Lynx
and much more. Lynx is the foundation upon which Netscape rests.
Similarities
Although the differences between the two formats are very
prominent, they also share some similarities. Perhaps the best, and most
surprising similarity to me, was that both Lynx and Netscape use URLs to
determine a certain sites Internet address. This provides Netscape with
the ability to display all the information in gopher-space in a more
available and user-friendly manner than Lynx is able to do. But both do
use the URL to determine specific sites for everything in its domain.
Without this, navigation through all of cyber-space would be impossible.
Both formats are also tools for searching for information. Although they
provide different information, as well as different presentations of
informations, they both have the same purpose. It is this purpose of the
never-ending quest for knowledge that make Lynx, Netscape, and others
like it invaluable to mankind.
Other Sites
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by Canaan Machida
Spring 1996
Psychology 409-G3
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
cmachida@hawaii.edu
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