Fig 1.0 Click on the blue, right-arrow, GO button to continue
Fig 1.1 Hover over an EBAY Item For Sale and then click on its green Web Slice button to continue
| WEB SLICES EXPLAINED |
What is a Web Slice? A Web Slice is like a RSS FEED but simpler. A RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed, explained in the RSS Feeds section, is basically a .xml file format/protocol used to publish webpages that are frequently updated. They are used mainly on Blogs, Forums and Websites to update News Articles for example. A Web Slice is similar but is meant for the purpose of subscribing to a webpage fragment and not necessary to the whole webpage or news article as defined by a rss feed. An example would be to subscribe to (keep up-to-date with) an EBAY Item For Sale webpage fragment as opposed to subscribing to all of EBAY's Items For Sale. In this section I will show you how to subscribe to an EBAY Item For Sale.
Begin by typing www.ebay.com into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box and then either click on the blue, right-arrow, GO button or press the ENTER keyboard key to continue. This will take you to the homepage of EBAY.
From the homepage (index webpage) of EBAY search for an Item For Sale - In this example (above) I have navigated to the
COMPUTERS & NETWORKING category, DRIVES & STORAGE sub-category and then searched for the term FLASH DRIVE. To
narrow the search further I clicked on the KINGSTON (Manufacturer) link and then on the AUCTIONS ONLY Tab. This gave me
283 Items For Sale to choose from. I then hovered over the KINGSTON DT150 32GB USB FLASH DRIVE item to see if it had a
Web Slice button, which it did, before clicking on that Web Slice link - Not all Items For Sale have a web slice link.
It does not matter what Item For Sale you search for in your example as long as it has a Web Slice link attached to it
when hovered over. Clicking on a web slice link brings up the following message requester - The message here is specific
to the Flash Drive I searched for above. To continue simply click on its ADD TO FAVORITES BAR button. Doing so will add
an Item For Sale button to internet explorer's Favorites Bar (Fig 1.3 below).
Once the Item For Sale button appears on internet explorer's Favorites Bar (above) you can start using it. Clicking on it will display the Item For Sale window which displays details about the Item For Sale - The remaining bidding minutes, the current item price, a link to the seller and so on. If you click on the blue, right-arrow, GO button (located at the bottom of the Item For Sale window) it will open up a new webpage that is linked directly to the Item For Sale webpage. This is the same as clicking on the SEE IT! button.
If you want to delete the Item For Sale button on internet explorer's Favorites Bar simply right click over it and then select (left click on) the DELETE menu-item from the Options menu that appears.
The blue, right-arrow, GO button (located at the bottom of the Item For Sale window) has a REFRESH button next to it, to the right of it. Clicking on this REFRESH button reloads (updates/refreshes) the content on the Item For Sale window. This means the remaining bidding minutes and current item price will be updated to reflect the current situation of the bid.
If you have not been monitoring (updating/refreshing) the current situation for the Item For Sale you may find that the Item For Sale has since expired - It is up to you to check (update) the Item For Sale window every now and then. Even though internet explorer will automatically check for updated information periodically it will only do so every 15 Minutes or more, but no less. If an item has been updated in that time the title of the Item For Sale button will become bold.
To change internet explorer's update frequency for Web Slices right click over the Item For Sale button and then select (left click on) the PROPERTIES menu-item from the Options menu that appears (Fig 1.10 below). Doing so will bring up the Web Slice Properties window (Fig 1.11 below) where you can then change the update frequency by clicking on the FREQUENCY drop-down menu.
When you have selected an Update Frequency simply apply it by clicking on the OK button.
If you want to know if a webpage has any web slices on it in the first place simply look at the Web Slice (Feed Discovery)
icon on the Favorites Bar. If it is grey (faded out) it means there are no web slices on the webpage (Fig 1.12 below),
but if it is green it means there is at least one web slice on the webpage (Fig 1.13 below).
In the case of there being at least one web slice on a webpage simply click on the green Web Slice (Feed Discovery) icon
to add the first web slice to the favorites bar. And when there is more than one web slice on a webpage click on the
green Web Slice (Feed Discovery) icon's drop-down menu, on the right-side of the icon, to display the first 20 web
slices (Fig 1.13 above). Although a webpage can include up to 100 Web Slices, only 20 entries can appear at one time on
the web slice list (drop-down menu).
Note well. In the above example I have termed the Web Slice button (its proper Microsoft name) as the Item For Sale
button, purely to explain the relationship between it and EBAY. Under normal circumstances refer to the Item For Sale
button as the Web Slice button.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
