Search Engines

What would the World Wide Web be without the powerful database searching tools provided by search engine websites? It would be basically like an immense library with millions of books on shelves stretching down endless corridors-all without any librarians or even a single card catalog.The estimated number of web pages stands at more than 8 billion, and that number is growing all the time. But with search engines, you can type in keywords you want information about and be presented with results in just a matter of seconds-a truly amazing fact given the vast collection of information on the Internet.

Finding the best search engine for your purposes often boils down to personal preference. Here are the Web's top six search engines, which together comprise over 90 percent of searches conducted by users, and, not surprisingly, are some of the Internet's best-known brand names.

* Google (www.google.com)
* Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)
* MSN (www.msn.com)
* AOL (www.aol.com)
* Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com)
* Information.com (www.information.com)

This section will discuss the different types of search engines and provide some ideas on how to get the most from your search engine use.