How To Search

CLICK TO CHOOSE = Searching the web Understanding how they work

One of the most important concepts about the Internet is using Search Engines to find information on the Web. Every day, new web pages appear on the Internet just full of valuable information. The question is, "How do I find what I need?"

First, you must understand that every web site on the Internet has an address, just like you have an address for your mail. These addresses are called URL's which stands for Universal Resource Locator. URL's look like www.sabinenet.com or www.ford.com or www.whitehouse.gov. So if you know the URL of the site that you want, just enter it in the address window of your browser and you will be taken there right away.

However, you must realize that there are hundreds of thousands of web sites on the Internet and the number is growing by thousands every day. So how can we find a site if we don't know the URL for the site? This is where the so called "Search Engines" come in. There are sites on the Internet that have been established just to locate and catalog the thousands of web sites available. These sites have been labeled "Search Engines" and they help us locate information on the Internet. An understanding of the search engines will help you use the Internet more efficiently for personal and business pursuits.

There are dozens of search engine sites. The list below are some of the biggest and most important. To use a search engine, just enter one or more keywords and let the site catalog and list all the web pages for your consideration. This is easy and you can learn by just doing it a few times.

Click to go to a engine - Click back to return
www.yahoo.com www.webcrawler.com www.altavista.com www.snap.com www.go.com www.lycos.com www.excite.com www.google.com www.hotbot.com	Most famous. One of the first. Alta Vista. Snap. The GO network. Lycos. Excite. A new search site. Hot Bot.

UNDERSTANDING HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK

As previously discussed, search engines help us find information on the web. The question here is, "How do they work and will they find my web page?"

Let's look at the last question first. In the beginning, when there were only a few hundred web pages, it was easy to find and use any page that you wished. Just enter its URL and the page appeared. However, as thousands of web pages appeared on the web, it was necessary to catalog the sites in order to find them. In fact, web sites arose on the Internet whose main function was to locate and catalog the various pages that were available on the Internet. You could search their catalogs almost like the card catalog in a library. At first, this cataloging was done manually, but in a short time, manual cataloging became impossible just due to the number of sites.

Finally, automatic software was written that would methodically search the Internet for web sites and catalog them. The sites that began this process became known as search engines. The automatic software that searched the Internet for web sites became known as "web crawler" or "spider" software because it crawled around the web searching for web sites.

Today, search engine sites use their spider software to locate and catalog the hundreds of thousands of sites available. Although all search engines use the spiders, some of them will allow you to manually send them an email with the URL of a web page that you want listed. The search engines that accept URL's by email usually have a link at the bottom of their main home page that says something like "Suggest a URL". You can click on the link and send them an email about your page. The important thing to remember here is that manual methods(email) tends to be slow and are not always accepted by a given search engine. The automatic spider software works and it will find your web page, but it takes time because there are so many web sites on the Internet these days.

Now the question, "How do they work?" When a Webmaster designs a web page, it includes a title, a description, and a series of keywords. These keywords are what the spiders search for and catalog. Hence if your Webmaster has properly designed your page with a good selection of keywords, when the spider software finds your web page, your page will be cataloged under the "best categories" for your particular page so that you can be found. The bottom line here is that if the page is well designed and the proper keywords are included, when the spider finds your page you will get into the catalog properly.

A WORD OF WARNING: There are companies all over the Internet that claim that they can get you listed in the top ten listings on all the search engines - all you have to do is send them your money and wait for the results. These people promise the world and deliver little or nothing. In short they try to soak the gullible on the Internet. Don't fall for this type of scam. A well designed web page and some patience while the spiders find you will do the job.