What is a search engine? A program that indexes documents, then attempts to match documents relevant to a user's search requests. The term search engine is most commonly used to refer to Web search engines. A Web search engine is a special web site that catalogs other web sites and has search capability; it is an Internet tool that lets users quickly and simply find the answers to questions or information on topics or keywords. A search engine uses 'spiders' or 'robots', which are programs to index the Web sites, reading the content of the pages, indexing them and returning that data to the Search Engine. The process is entirely automated. SEARCH ENGINE (1)

What is a Keyword? Keywords are words or phrases entered by people looking for webs sites via search engines. Keywords are words or phrases that describe your topic. These are the words the search engine uses to find what it thinks are sites that match what you're looking for The more specific a keyword, the more specific the results will be. SEARCH ENGINE (2)

What is a Spider? Also known as robots or crawlers, these are the programs that are used by Search Engines for indexing the web and gathering the HTML information that is on ther web pages. Ex: SEARCH ENGINE (3)

What is a directory? A Web directory is an organized, categorized listing of Web sites. Directories use human editors to look at websites and to decide how to categorize sites for inclusion. is a popular Directory. Some more directories: WEB DIRECTORY (1)

What is the difference between a search engine and a directory? A search engine uses automated 'spiders' or 'robots' to catalog websites. A directory uses people to go through a web site and catalog the web site. A search engine is a service that is reviewed by an automated search engine spider in order to rank your website. A directory is a service that is reviewed manually by individuals who look at the sites for content and subject matter and ranks them accordingly. SEARCH ENGINE/ DIRECTORY

The terms "directory" and "search engine" are often used interchangeably. Much of the confusion stems from the various combinations of the two models that have developed over time. There are advantages and drawbacks to using a Web directory as opposed to a search engine. One vehicle may be better suited to certain types of searches than the other. Directories place an emphasis on linking to site home pages and try to minimize deep linking. This makes directories more useful for finding sites instead of individual pages. SEARCH ENGINE/ DIRECTORY

The search engine software that is used to search other search engines. It sends user requests to several other search engines and returns the results from each one. They allow users to enter their search criteria only one time and access several search engines simultaneously. Since no search engine can catalog the entire web, the idea is that by searching multiple search engines you are able to search more of the web in less time and do it with only one click. METASEARCH ENGINE

The search engine software that is used to search other search engines. It sends user requests to several other search engines and returns the results from each one. They allow users to enter their search criteria only one time and access several search engines simultaneously. Since no search engine can catalog the entire web, the idea is that by searching multiple search engines you are able to search more of the web in less time and do it with only one click. METASEARCH ENGINE

Some metasearch engines

SET YOUR SEARCH The major search engines let you select whether to search for the exact phrase you typed, all the words in the phrase but not necessarily together, any of the words in a phrase, and so on. (See Google advanced research ).A few search engines do not give you such options. In this case, you can define the search yourself by adding one or more words or symbols to your search topic. You can define your search using Boolean operators. AND To search for two (or more) terms on the same page: Type the word AND between the terms. (Example: sea AND kayak) Or put a plus sign right before the second term. (Example: sea +kayak.) OR To search for either of two (or more) terms on the same page: Type the word OR between the terms. (Example: kayak OR canoe) AND NOT To search for pages that include the first term and not the second : Type the words AND NOT between the terms. (Example: kayak AND NOT whitewater) Or put a minus sign right before the second term. (Example: kayak -whitewater.) "" To search for an exact phrase: Enclose the phrase in quotation marks. (Example: "sea kayak rental") * To search for various forms of a word: Add an asterisk to the end of the word. (Example: kayak* This returns pages with the words kayak, kayaks, kayaked, kayaking, and so on.)