The fundamental problem with doing research on the web has always been where does one begin? With no central organization scheme and no master "card catalog", locating information in a collection of 1 billion plus documents is a challenge!

Fortunately, Web Search Engines are available. While they are far from perfect, the search engines can aim you in the right direction most of the time. In the next online exploration, you will examine several of these search engines.

It is fine if you get sidetracked on this initial visit to the search engines. One of the real joys (and distractions) of using search engines is the serendipitous discovery of interesting webpages. As you locate useful webpages, be sure to add them to your Favorites List or Bookmarks for future use.

You will notice that all of the search engines have a similar user interface. Somewhere between all the ads and text on the screen you will see a white text entry box. Move the cursor to this box and click once. Enter the search topic you selected (nothing extra this first time through, just the general topic). Click on the Search button or hit the Enter/Return key. While you are waiting for the search engine to return the "hits" (webpages that match your query), examine the search engine interface. Notice the Help link.  This will give you more information on how to effectively use the search engine. 

Select a topic to use as you compare the search engines.   Using the same topic will give you a point for comparing the effectiveness of each search engine.

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