Introduction to Searching the Web

With billions of pages on the World Wide Web, how do you find the information you’re looking for? Search sites are the answer. There are two major search tools: engines and directories. A search engine is an electronic tool that automatically catalogs words in Web
sites and then creates an index of those words and sites. A search directory, on the other hand, relies on people to create descriptions of sites. When you search using a directory, you are searching only the words in the descriptions, not in the sites themselves.
Whether you search using engines or directories, you can use the same simple techniques to produce good results.

Be specific. For example, if you are looking for information on college scholarship opportunities for minorities, type minority college scholarship in the Search box, rather than just scholarship.

Use quotation marks for exact phrases. For example, if you want to find a recipe for the dessert cherries jubilee, type “cherries jubilee recipe” or your results might include sites on paintings and poems titled Cherries Jubilee.

Check your spelling. Spelling counts with search tools, so if you want information about Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, you will not receive the results you are looking for if you type in Bulawoya.

AltaVista ( http://www.altavista.com)
AltaVista is one of the largest search engines on the Web in terms of pages indexed. It is available in many other languages, including Spanish, French, and Chinese.

Ask Jeeves (http://www.ask.com)
Ask Jeeves is different from other search directories because it allows you to ask questions using natural language, rather than special searching techniques. For example, you can type How do I change a flat tire? and Ask Jeeves will return the relevant information.

Direct Hit (http://www.directhit.com)
Direct Hit calls itself a “popularity engine” because it counts how many times people click on sites. When you search on Direct Hit, it will provide you with the most popular sites in response to your search.

Excite (http://www.excite.com)
Excite offers many services in addition to a search engine, including free e-mail, shopping links, news, and daily horoscopes.

Google (http://www.google.com)
Google has gained widespread praise for providing relevant results because the search engine ranks Web sites based on popularity.

HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)
HotBot combines results from different search engines and directories. It offers advanced searching features that allow you to limit search results according to language,
date, and region. HotBot also includes search categories such as music, jobs and résumés, and public records.

Lycos (http://www.lycos.com)
Lycos is a large and popular search directory, and its main listings come from the Open Directory Project.

MSN Search (http://search.msn.com)
If you are using Internet Explorer and click the Search button on the toolbar, MSNSearch appears on the left side of the screen.

Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org)
The Open Directory Project uses volunteer editors to catalog Web sites. Visitors to the site can sign up to become an editor and make suggestions about sites to include or remove from the Open Directory index. Other sites, such as AltaVista, Lycos, and HotBot, use Open
Directory information.

WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com)
WebCrawler has a small index compared to other major search engines, which can result in less-overwhelming search results.

Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)
Yahoo is one of the most popular search directories. Yahoo offers features such as search sites for different categories, such as restaurants, and for specific cities and geographic regions.