Using Search Engines
You can locate useful or interesting web sites by using a search engine. This is an organization with a web site containing a huge database of web site addresses. You key in a subject or a name that describes what you are seeking, and the search engine provides you with a list or selection of web site addresses that fit your inquiry. You then simply click on an address to jump to that web site.
Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Yahoo, Google, Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.

Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

Preliminary Searching Hints

1. Choose a search engine, directory or library in accordance with the kind of search you are doing and the kind of results you are seeking.

2. Consider: Are you looking for a Web site? Information that might be contained within Usenet? Academic articles that may only be retrievable with gopher?

3. Determine your aims: Do you want a specific hard-to-find document on an esoteric subject, or general information on a broader topic? Do you need to search the entire Web, or is what you are seeking likely to be found on a number of sites, or only the most popular sites?

4. In making your choice, determine whether the information you are looking for is likely to be in a page's title or first paragraph, or buried deeper within the document or site.

5. Use a search engine's advanced features, if available, and read the help files if you are unclear about its searching procedure.

Choosing Search Terms and Syntax

1. Enter synonyms, alternate spellings and alternate forms (e.g. dance, dancing, dances) for your search terms.

2. Enter all the singular or unique terms that are likely to be included in the document or site you are seeking.

3. Avoid using very common terms (e.g. Internet, people), which may lead to a massive amount of irrelevant search results.

4. Determine how your search engine uses capitals and plurals, and enter capitalized or plural forms of your search words if appropriate.

5. Use a phrase or proper name if possible to narrow your search and therefore retrieve more relevant results (unless you want a large number of results)

6. Use multiple operators (e.g. AND, NOT) if a search engine allows you to do so.

7. If you receive too many results, refine and improve your search. (After browsing the results, you may become aware of how to use NOT - e.g. Boston AND hockey AND NOT Bruins)

8. Pay attention to proper spacing and punctuation in your search syntax (i.e. no space when using + means +term not + term)

Major Search Engines and Directories
Google
http://www.google.com

Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com

Ask Jeeves
http://www.askjeeves.com

AllTheWeb.com
http://www.alltheweb.com

AOL Search
http://aolsearch.aol.com (internal)
http://search.aol.com (external)

HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com

Teoma
http://www.teoma.com

AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com

Gigablast
http://www.gigablast.com

LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com

Lycos
http://www.lycos.com

MSN Search
http://search.msn.com

Netscape Search
http://search.netscape.com

Open Directory
http://dmoz.org/