I’ve seen it first hand, intelligent people who apparently think that their ISP’s homepage, or worse still AOL, is the internet. They switch on their Windows PC and press the “connect to the net” icon, a customized version of that browser starts up and they set about their daily business on their internet, innocently clicking ads and sponsored links to all the sh*te their ISP and its partners want them too.

Of course, in an ideal world everyone would know the difference between an ISP or computer manufacturer’s portal to the bits of the web they want to target and the actual world wide web, but they don’t. Trying to explain the difference to some people…well…

A recent case in point was the recent ReadWriteWeb post that discussed Facebook’s new login system and had dozens of angry commenters criticizing Facebook for ruining Facebook with a redesign. What had happened, of course, is that people who get to a website, not via a bookmark, but via a search were typing in facebook login into their search bar and ending up at the RWW page which had outranked Facebook itself in the search engines. No wonder phishing scammers trawl in so many gullible idiots each day and phillet them live.

I don’t suffer fools gladly, to be honest, and anyone using the tools of the modern world where malicious individuals lurk, should become au fait with the basics before getting started even if that does make them look nerdy. You wouldn’t leave your home without understanding the basics of how to use a lock and key or drive anywhere without knowing what the accelerator and brake pedals in your car do, would you? Why shouldn’t you learn the basics of browser usage then?

Anyway, just in case you arrived here from Google hoping to login to Facebook, then don’t worry you still can, although not by clicking that graphic above…

Instead simply type facebook.com in your browser’s address bar and click the “Go” or tap the enter key and you will be magically taken to Facebook. Once you’re logged in, you might care to become a fan of this site – sciencetext/sciencebase where you will see science news and technology advice, chat and discussion. If you get stuck you could even ask a question.