NH Web Design Blog

Your new website has been launched on the Internet. You’re excited and can’t wait to show it off. Right? But you begin to tense up when you realize you can’t even find it yourself.

Don’t panic. The problem is often confusion between the Address Bar and the Search Box in your web browser.

The Address Bar is located at the top of your screen. It is where you type in URL’s or website addresses (ex. http://www.Google.com).

The Search Box is the place where you type terms to search for. It is often on the right side of the Address Bar. See the little magnifying glass icon in the example below (On the RIGHT)? That’s an indicator for the Search Box.

Don’t Look for your New Website in the Search Box

Owners that type their new domain name into a Search Box usually get no results. It just means that the Search Engine cannot find their website yet. It takes time (weeks or more) for brand new websites to be recognized by the Search Engines.

Use the Address Bar to Find Your New Website

So when your website is first launched, type your domain into the Address Bar at the top of your browser, instead of the Search Box. Type in your full URL (ie, http://www.mydomain.com) in the Address Bar.

As your website becomes more established and you have created links to it, the Search Engines will find you and begin to recognize your domain. Only then can they direct you to it if you enter your URL into the Search Box.

How do I get the Search Engines to find my website?

Each Search Engine spiders the web looking for new and updated pages. If your site is found during this process, then your site will be indexed (added to the search engine database). The spiders may pick up your site through an inbound link. You can also submit your site to the Search Engines directly.

But don’t expect great Search Engine rankings soon after launching a new website. Why should your website rank above the dozens of other websites in your niche who have been around for years and have many more links than you? That wouldn’t be fair.

Google is especially known for withholding high ranking ability of newly launched websites for several months.

The New Web Browsers May Add More Confusion

In 2009, the newest web browsers have Address Bars with increased functionality. They all try to help you find what you are looking for on the Internet. This change could make it easier for you, but might be even more confusing at first.

The AwesomeBar

Firefox 3: The address bar has been renamed the AwesomeBar.

It is used not only for inputting URLs but also for searching your bookmarks. The AwesomeBar learns as you use it. When inputting URLs (web addresses), Firefox 3 tries to guess what site you’re trying to reach.

The Smart Address Bar

Internet Explorer 8 has a new Smart Address Bar.

Can’t remember the full address of a new website you visited last week? Type a few characters in the new Smart Address Bar and Internet Explorer 8 will automatically recall sites you’ve already visited based on your entry.

The Omnibar

Google Chrome has a feature similar to Firefox’s Awesome Bar: the Omnibar.

The Omnibar combines the search box and the address bar. (See the box below with the www.amazon.com URL in it? That’s the OmniBar.)

When typing in a URL, the Omnibar also offers suggestions, based on your browsing history, in a drop-down list. The Omnibar is supposed to serve all your browsing needs: web search, web history, and address bar.

In the image below, I’ve typed in “nh web design” into the OmniBar and it gave me suggestions, including URL’s and search ideas. I can pick any one of the suggestions to try to find what I am looking for.

All these new browsers keep track of the user’s history, offering possible matches for you.

But there seems to be some controversy over these new Web Browser Bars and differences of opinion about which one is best. See Browser Wars 2009 and IE8 vs. Chrome vs. Firefox3 vs. Safari4. (Safari is a web browser for Macintosh computers.)

You can see who’s winning the browser wars here and keep up with what’s going on in the browser world at Browser Watch.

Summary

In 2009, there are many web browsers and many versions of them. If you can’t find your new website on the Internet, it may help to figure out what web browser you are using. If you are using an old style web browser, use the Address Bar to find your website. If you are using one of the newer ones, type in your full URL into one of the newfangled bars (AwesomeBar, OmniBar, Smart Address Bar). They will try to help you.

And if you are still using Internet Explorer 6, please upgrade! (You should be embarrassed.)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 1:57 pmand is filed under Search Engines, Web Browsers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.