Search Engines and Directories

How to perform a subject or keyword search.

 There are many ways to start a subject or keyword search:

1)     type a word or phrase in the address/location bar (uses the browser’s default search engine, but does not work on all browsers or computers)

2)     click on the search button of your browser and type the word or phrase in the text box that is provided.  NOTE: Internet Explorer will default to the MSN search engine; Netscape will give you a choice of popular search engines.

3)     bring up a list of search engines such as this page or  www.hotsheet.com and choose the search engine you prefer.  Type the word or phrase in the appropriate text box.

4)     Type in the address of the search engine or portal that you prefer, such as www.yahoo.com or www.excite.com.  Type the word or phrase in the appropriate text box.

Advanced Searching

 What you search for is not always what you get!  It is very  easy to get sidetracked, when looking up a certain subject, by looking at other interesting things that are listed that have nothing to do with what you want.  

Different search engines use different search methods.  Some search the whole page/article.  Some search only the WWW address and the title of the page.   If you don’t find what you are looking for, try another engine or try putting in the search words differently.   

Also, the searching conventions are slightly different with different engines.  Some have boxes to check to specify whether the words should be searched as a phrase, some use quotes;  if two words are put in the blank, some automatically search for pages with both, some search for either.  The best teaching tool here is experimentation and repetition.  

Popular Search Engines

Go.com

ixquick*

MetaCrawler *

Turbo10 *

Vivisimo *

Yahoo