Resources for Information Skills

Section contents page Introduction Choosing the right tool for the job Search engines When to use information gateways and specialist databases Google Access to the invisible web Google development How to get the best out of Google Why not always Google? Other search engines Meta-search engines Why use a directory? Overview Summary
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Search engines

Search engines are the most commonly used tools for online searching.They do not discriminate between the good and bad information sites. Any search engine may have a small search box to enter your key words. For instance, Google. The submitted key words are run against the automatically generated database, which can retrieve web pages or documents that match those key words both in the title and content of the article. As a result, an unordered list of results is displayed, based on the key words submitted. However, there are several search engines which operates slightly in different way so the results may differ.

Be aware that no search engine covers all the web pages/sites on the internet, so if you cannot find what you are looking for at first attempt,then try with other search engines.

The following are some of a few example of search engines

Google   Yahoo   Live Search  Ask.com  Bing 

Search engines are best for finding specific information and not for browsing. As the search engine display their results on the two dimensional map, whereby one can navigate in search of the best answer. For instance, KartOO and Quintura. Knowing how to formulate and construct your search key words effectively is essential. So if you don't have these skills, use the search engine's help page.

Given that no search engine covers the whole web, and submitting the same query to various search engine can be tiresome and frustrating. Meta-search engines such as Dogpile, Zuula and Bing can be useful. They cover search not only Google, but a numerous other search engines too, in a one query search. Most of them present their results according to their ranking in the source engine and reduce duplications. Detailed information about Meta-search engine can be found here