Have you ever went to your favorite Internet search engine, typed in what you were looking for, and up pops 15000 or more different web-sites for you to search for the one thing you need. You must think to yourself - "There must be an easier way!" With 3269 search engines (Search Engine Guide) available for the general public to use, picking the one that is just right for you might take time to figure out. My favorite search engines are Yahoo! and Google. Yahoo's search directory is a manually created; it is a collection of site listings created by human editors. Web-masters submit their sites to Yahoo!. The sites are then categorized, reviewed, and ready to be searched. Google, on the other hand, is a robot or spider search engine that captures every word on every page by crawling through web pages, thus giving you results of sites with words that you are looking for.

To conduct a search on Yahoo!, a word describing a category is typed in the search box. Yahoo then searches its directory for matches for that topic. The results that are given for you search starts with "Inside Yahoo! Matches" which are products or services within Yahoo!. Next "Category Matches" are given. "Category Matches" are Yahoo! directory categories that match your search. From here you can narrow your search to something that is manageable. "Web Site Matches" results are given subsequently to show the web sites listed within the Yahoo! directory. The web sites listed give a category, URL address, and a description written by a Yahoo! editor about the site. The last results given are the "Web Page Matches". This is a new service from Yahoo!. In the past when a person searches Yahoo!, they are only able to look at site people have asked to be on Yahoo! and not what is left on the web. To keep up with technology and to keep people using their services, Yahoo! has join in partnership with Google to give a more complete search of the Internet. The "Web Page Matches" are sites found using Google and are not a part of the Yahoo! directory.

Searching Google is similar to Yahoo!. By entering a query or descriptive words in the search box and clicking submit, Google will list web pages that meet your criteria. Google results are limited to pages that contain all the words that you listed in the search box. To narrow the number of results, more descriptive words need to be added to the search criteria. The keywords or words to be searched should be as specific as possible. On Google's home page, there are two buttons to start the search. "Google Search" links you to the search results; "I'm Feeling Lucky" links you to the first web page in the search. Google allows searches for web site, images, Usenet user groups, and directory searches. When searching for web sites, place the word(s) or phrase (phrases need to be in quotes) that will be searched in the search box, click on "Google Search". Google will search the web for sites with the word(s) or phrase needed. The result page will show what Google directory best matches your search, then links to any news stories that matches your criteria, and finally the web sites found. When searching for images, the type of pictures needed is typed in the search box and "Google Search" is clicked. The process is the same for the Usenet groups and the Directory searches.

Google and Yahoo! both allow for advanced searches. Yahoo! advance search allows searches for just Yahoo! categories, web sites, or both. Also, advanced searches allows for all words to be matched (and), matches on any word (or), or for exact phrase match. Google's advanced search criteria choices include "with all of the words" matches, "with the exact phrase" matches, "with at least one on the words" matches, and "without the words" matches. It also allows for searches in a certain language, within a set file format, updated by a set date, words in a specific part of a web site, and sites within a designated domain. Advanced searches on Google also allow for searches using "Safe Search." "Safe Search" is a filter that allows adult sites to be excluded from search results.

No matter what the search engine of your choice may be, or whenever you are in need of assistance in narrowing your criteria or just needing help on what to do, find the help link on the search engine site. It will take you to a place that will help take away your stress on finding the "just right" web page.

Information found on the following sites.
Yahoo!
Google
Search Engine Guide