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Search the Internet
Looking for a person or a business? If you're looking for the address or phone number of a person or a business, try one of the directories that combines residential, business and government phone books in the Webrary 380s (Communication). Looking for answers? Subject Indexes, Directories and Search Engines These Internet search tools are basically links to Internet resources. The differences between them are usually in the size of the index, the method of site selection, and the searching capabilities within the index. Which resource you choose for your search will vary according to the type of information you're looking for.
Subject Indexes
The large, keyword-searchable directories like DMoz or LII contain thousands of sites, submitted and sometimes annotated by each site's owners, and listed in pre-determined subject categories. They are ideal when your search is fairly specific, for example: bicycle races, election results, or dog shows. Most directories have special features (headline news, foreign language versions, ratings) to lure users, and are supported by prominent advertising.
The major search engines like Google or Yahoo! attempt to index everything on the Internet, searching at incredible speed every word of millions of Web documents and other Internet resources. Thousands of sites are added every day by their continually operating computer programs called a "Web robots". The capabilities of search engines include phrase searching, Boolean searches (AND, OR, NEAR and NOT), and even searching by audio or graphic file. These power players are most useful when your search is highly specialized, for example: photographs of the Iditarod, a definition of myasthenia gravis, or the lyrics to an Irish folk song.
Multiple search engines surf several search engine databases at once. Most only retrieve the top 10-50 hits from each search engine, so the total number of hits retrieved may be considerably less than found by doing a direct search on one of the search engines.
For access to other Internet search tools, visit Proteus' Search the Internet page, which can do its own search for you, but also provides links to all the major search tools you can use in its place.
For a concise look at all of the major search avenues, check out Search Engine Showdown: The User's Guide to Web Searching. This great site compares and evaluates Internet search engines from the searcher's perspective. Developed originally as a way to keep track of the search engines and share that information, the site has grown to include a search engine features chart, detailed search engine reviews, an online newsletter, and search strategies and tips.
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"Webrary" is a registered trademark of the Morton Grove Public Library. All rights reserved.
www.webrary.org/Ref/srchweb.html
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