search engines
A search engine on the other hand is a software program that enables users to search through a much broader set of resources on the Web.
"Spiders", or "robots", crawl through the web and index web pages and documents that are later retrieved when they contain the terms that match a user's search query. These resources are displayed in a list, and are organized according to some rule of relevance, allowing users to easier sort through the more appropriate resources.
Many search engines index many millions of web pages, so it can be very easy to become overwhelmed by the number of resources you retrieve. As such, search engines are best used when you are looking for very specific information, and have constructed a search string that accurately reflects that specific information need.
Some popular search engines include:
- Google (http://www.google.com/)
- Bing (http://www.bing.com/)
- Excite (http://www.excite.com/)
- AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/)
- Yahoo (http://ca.yahoo.com/?p=us)
