Searching for Information on the Web

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Searching for information on the Web can be rewarding, time-consuming, frustrating, or a combination of all three. Michael Gorman, Library Director at Cal State, Fresno, uses the following example to describe the Web search process:

• Take a book.
• Remove the cover.
• Remove the title page.
• Remove the table of contents.
• Remove the index.
• Cut the binding from the spine.
• Fling the loose pages that remain so they scatter about the room.
• Now, find the information you needed from that book.
• This is the Internet.

Fortunately, there are resources designed to help you find information on the Web. These resources are the World Wide Web Search Engines, and there are many search engines available. You can click on the Search button available in either Netscape or Internet Explorer to search for information on the Web, or you can go directly to a specific search engine page by entering the URL for the engine that you want to use.

Search engines vary in their methods of searching and in the numbers of pages that they search. Visit these Web pages for charts that compare search engine features:

To get the best results you will want to perform a search using more than one search engine, or conduct your search using a meta-search engine that will query multiple search engines simultaneously. For an excellent detailed guide on using web search engines link to The University of California at Berkeley's Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial.