What should you use to search the Internet?

Because the information found on the Internet grows at an astounding rate every day, you must have something that helps you find what you are looking for. Search Engines are widely used by Internet users to find the Web sites they are looking for. There are many different kinds of search engines, which can be used in many ways. There are many search engines you probably have heard of, such as Yahoo, Google, and Ask Jeeves, while there are many that you may not have heard of, such as Northern Light and Profusion.

Search engines use special software to scan the Internet looking for information contained on Web pages and store that information in huge databases. When you connect to a search engine and type in your search terms, you are actually looking through the database for that search engine. Because there is so much information on the Internet, it is not possible for any single search engine to search and catalog the entire World Wide Web. If a brand new Web site is released, it will probably take many days for search engines to identify it and add it to their catalogs.

Probably the most popular search engine in use right now is Google. Google is known for finding more relevant search results, as well as how easy it is use.

Yahoo is different from Google, in that Yahoo is actually a directory that uses people to find and organize material that it lists in its search results. If someone wants their Web site added to Yahoo's database of Web sites, they have to fill out an online request for someone from Yahoo to take a look at the site. If the Yahoo employee thinks the site is good, it is added.

Ask Jeeves is a search engine that allows users to pose questions using natural language, rather than keywords. Instead of typing "Old Faithful Geyser", Ask Jeeves allows you to ask "Where can I find information about Old Faithful Geyser?" Ask Jeeves really seems to understand your questions and then points you towards pages that are usually exactly what you are looking for. Another handy feature included on the Ask Jeeves page is that you can check a box to have your spelling checked. So if you are looking for "Yellowstone National Park", and accidentally type "Yelowstoan National Park", Ask Jeeves can help!

There are actually some search engines that search other search engines and bring back the top number of hits. Sites like Metacrawler and Profusion are referred to as meta-search engines, because they search a larger amount of the Internet by searching many smaller search engines. Meta-search engines are basically search engines that search other search engines.

There are many different search engines available for use, but keep in mind that there is no "best" search engine. Basically, it all comes down to what you prefer to use.