Searching the Internet

There are many ways to search or "surf" the Internet. One way is to visit a site and simply follow the hyperlinks and see where they lead you to. Another is to use search engines or directories.

Search Engines

A search engine is a program that searches the Internet by keywords and gives you links to Web sites that contain a word that you've searched. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo, and Alta Vista.

Example of a Search Engine Search

Let’s look at a situation in which a search engine is helpful. Suppose you’re writing to a friend but you don’t have her ZIP code. The post office probably has a Web site where you can look up the code.

Google is one search engine that is good for these kinds of queries. Type the URL in your Address bar: www.google.com. Enter your search keywords in the box and press Enter.

Since the World Wide Web is international in scope, the term “united states” will be useful in focusing the search. “Post office” clearly expresses the concept of your search. There is no need to include explanatory words like “looking for information about the post office.” Notice that you also did not need to capitalize the proper nouns.

In this example, the very first result gets you to the official Web site of the U.S. Postal Service. The second result, which is another Web page in the post office’s Web site, will get you directly to the ZIP code look-up screen.

There are other terms you could have used to get to the same final result. When you are using a search engine and not finding what you’re looking for, go back and try different words and combinations until you get more relevant results.