Finding Information on the Internet

2. The Machinery of Searching

Search engines are directories that try to index everything on the web. Type in a keyword or phrase and they list your 'hits', with the closest apparent matches at the top of the list.

2.1 There are hundreds of search engines, with around 50 that are particularly relevant to UK users. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Many try to provide extra information to appeal to a particular type of visitor.

• Yahoo! is a good starting point when searching the web. It provides an accurate, but relatively small, directory of sites, organised by category but also searchable by keyword.
• AltaVista, Lycos and the excellent Google also index the contents of individual web pages. Google and All the Web are generally recognised as the biggest information sources on the web.
• Ditto is a search engine dedicated purely to pictures.
• Search engines providing UK-specific searching include Mirago, SearchUK and UK Plus.
• Yell, from Yellow Pages, and Scoot are probably the best places to search for products, services and companies.

2.2 There are a growing number of search sites that will simultaneously submit your enquiry to a range of major search engines. They also collate and attempt to rank the information received.

• The best of these so-called 'meta-search engines' are Ask, Ixquick and Metacrawler.

2.3 Another route to automatic searching of search engines and other sources is to use a type of software known as a search agent.

• The best-known search agent, popular with academic and business researchers, is Copernic. A basic version of this flexible, powerful program, giving access to around 80 information resources can be downloaded free for use with Microsoft Windows.

2.4 There are also search engines that specialise in covering the newsgroups, allowing you to find relevant discussion forums quickly.

• Google allows you to search 35,000 newsgroups. Visit www.google.co.uk and click on 'Groups'.
• A complete list of UK newsgroups can be found at www.usenet.org.uk.

2.5 If you need to know who owns a site, you can easily do an instant search, free.

• For most .uk sites, search at Nominet.
• To find out about a .com site, first identify the registration company by searching at www.internic.net/whois.html. Then go to the registration company's website and search for the site owner.
• NetNames searches registration sites worldwide with one query.