.......Click this button
.......again to collapse.

YAHOO: is the #1 most visited site on the internet. It is more than a search engine. It is actually known as an index if you want to get technical. An index has categories created by YAHOO and web sites can be registered under these catagories as an index entry. Yahoo also interfaces to other search engines such as those listed and can provide you an avenue to find sites that are not yet registered with Yahoo. Yahoo is undoubtedly the SINGLE most important INDEX to be registered with if you have a web page. Unfortunately, it can take months for your site to appear in this index after you submit the request. In addition, to searching you can do shopping, news, free email, and much more from Yahoo. They have a decent TV GUIDE too (though the HBO schedule is always off for us in Lake City, Colorado).

META CRAWLER: is a great search engine simply because, it accesses and searches multiple search engines with a simple request. Meta Crawler is actually not a search engine. Rather, it is an interface to allow you to search multiple search engines at once.

MSN SEARCH: This is another of the HUGE MICROSOFT CORPORATION'S sites. This search engine is based off of what is known as the Inktomi database. As such, this is usually the first site to show new sites when they are submitted. Usually within a day or so. However, some of the other search engines are better if you are looking for sites that have been around longer than a few days. In addition, there are other search engines that also use the Inktomi database.

ALTAVISTA: Is another old search engine. It actually searches off of the words in the title for a web page and does not access keywords at all. It usually has a new site listed within 3 to 4 days. It is a decent search engine but, the lack of keyword support can sometimes throw you for a loop. In fact, it does use the keywords but, only after it has exhausted ALL title searches.

QUICK TIPS TO USING A SEARCH ENGINE:

1. Try entering the words you are looking for first.
2. If you get too many results that are not specific enough try enclosing your words in parenthesis like this (keywords keywords keywords) and try searching again. On some search engines this tells the engine that you want ONLY sites that contain ALL of the keywords not just some of them.
3. If this still does not work some sites do not use the parenthesis method but, instead you must put a PLUS sign between each of the keywords to achieve the results sought after. For example like this: keywords+keywords+keywords.
4. If this still does not work try adding another keyword.
5. If you still are not having luck try rearranging the order the keywords are listed. This can make a big difference in some circumstances.