WHAT YOU WILL FIND

Although each search engine is unique, most work in broadly similar ways. However, there are enough differences to make it worthwhile trying any search in two or three different engines, such as Alta Vista, Infoseek and Yahoo.

KEEP IN MIND THAT NO SINGLE SEARCH ENGINE WILL SEARCH ALL OF THE WEB!

ADVERTISING

Web search pages contain so much advertising that you will have to look closely to find your search results. The same goes for the results pages that follow.

RESULTS

The information that the search engine found for you. To see your results, scroll down past the advertising and other distractions to get to the RESULTS. You do this by clicking on the arrows at the top or bottom of the left side of the screen or by dragging the SCROLL BAR up or down in the same column.

NUMBER OF RESULTS

This number may range from zero to over a million. Look near the beginning of the results list for the number found.

RANKING

The retrieved results are ranked by relevance with the most relevant appearing first in the list. Relevance is denoted by %. To rank the sites, the search engines look for frequency, placing and matches:

• Frequency—How often the words are used in the site.
  
• Placing—If the words appear near the beginning of the web page.
  
• Matches—If the words appear in the:
  
  
  
  • title of the web site
    
  • first two paragraphs of text
    
  • first 100/200 words of the web page
    
  • subject listings of the web site
  
  

HOTLINKS

The name of each site in the list of sites you found will be a hotlink. You will be able to click on it to go to that site. When you are ready to go back, just click on the BACK button at the top left of your screen to return to the list and choose another of the items your search found.