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Search Engines

Search Engines Illustration Image

Since the amount of information on the Internet is enormous, it is important to develop an effective search strategy before beginning an online search. A good starting point is asking yourself what you want to do. Do you want to familiarize yourself with a topic, locate specific data, retrieve everything you can on the subject, or find sources for your paper or report? Your goals will determine how you will conduct your search and which online sources you will use. The Internet provides a variety of search engines, subject directories, subscription databases, discussion boards, and newsgroups. Don't forget, the Texas Tech Library has an online system designed to help you find books, articles, and electronic materials as well.

Search engines are searchable databases of Internet files automatically collected by computer programs known as "crawlers" or "spiders". They allow users to search for information by entering keywords and complex search logic to find information on any given subject. Search engines are usually the best choice when you are looking for a specific piece of information, however, if a search string is not carefully designed, it will return thousands of matches, many of which can be irrelevant to your search.

Not all search engines are created equal, and not all of them work in the same way. Out of more than 60 search sites, the most popular ones, such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search, AOL Search, and Ask.com, account for roughly 90% of all queries. Different search engines use different ranking schemes and search options, which means that your search results will be different as well. Among less familiar types of search engines are meta search and specialized search engines.

Meta search engines, such as Dogpile, Ixquick, and Mamma, do not compile their own databases. Instead, they search the databases of other search engines, presenting the results within the same interface, thus providing a quick way to find out which engines are retrieving the best results for your search.