The World Wide Web is so enormous and spread out that one of the hardest parts of learning to use it is figuring out how to find the information you need!

This is why SEARCH ENGINES were invented. Search Engines are programs which quickly check lists and indexes of thousands or millions of electronic documents looking for the information you need.

Which Search Engine should you use? Which is best? My personal advice is to try out several, and use the one which works best for you: the fastest, easiest and most effective.  There are many good guides to search engines in the WWW. They compare things like speed, size and relevancy of results.

How do different search engines find and rank their results? Here are some of the things they compare:

A good example of differing search approaches can be seen by comparing Google and Overture, which are owned by the same company. Google claims to use a straight merit-based formula involving hits, links and relevancy. Overture simply sells placements to companies at rates which vary according to how many visits they get. Try this comparison exercise:

Comparison Exercise

Next, let's compare three of the most popular Search Engines on the Web....

In order to compare these three engines, lets do a search exercise.

Recently, we have seen the popularity and usefulness of Meta Search Engines, which search several engines simultaneously, and apply smart strategies to your search.
 

Dogpile

To try out these Engines, look at this Sample Search Sheet

Johns Search Quiz

Sometimes we need to find PEOPLE, not THINGS. The best place to look for people on the web is at the Internet White Pages. It includes many thousands of people, but not everyone who is on the net.

To see how it works, try looking for yourself. Enter your local address, and see if you are in the 411 database. If 411 can't find you, you may want to follow the easy registration instructions at the 411 site. Then other people who are looking will be able to find you.

Now, try the People Search Exercise.....

One of the hardest parts of doing successful searches is deciding what search terms to use. If you search for a word or phrase which is too general, you will get thousands of results, too many to examine all of them. If your search is too narrow, it may not find anything. To practice forming search queries, try this FORMING A SEARCH EXERCISE.

If your first attempt to find something returns no results, or results different from what you are looking for DON'T PANIC! First, check your SPELLING. This is the most common cause of unsuccessful searches. If that's not the problem, try some alternate terms or words. For example, if your search for "skin-diving" returns nothing, try "scuba diving".

We have explored only a few of the hundreds of useful search engines on the WWW. Here are three gateway sites which will enable you to reach any point on the net.

All-in-one is a list of useful search links. It has a tremendous catalogue of search engines according to what you are looking for. This is one of the best organized and most complete sites around!.

www.search.com is part of the c|net guide to the web. It has an easy-to-use Altavista form, but the really cool part is the Express-Search, which allows you to search 11 of the most popular engines from a single form.

.The MANNET Guide to Search Engines includes nice descritions of the strenghts and weaknesses of15 of the top search engines. A good place for information as well as links to the engines themselves.

Now use all that you have learned to search for the answers to the following Search Scavenger Hunt. You can use whichever search engines work best for you. Remember, if your first search is unsuccessful, try, try again. As they say at YAHOO, You Always Have Other Options!