What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is a Web site that links to a database of many (okay, many, many) Internet files. These can be Web sites, homepages, gophers, newsgroups, etc. If none of those words mean anything to you, just think, "it's a collection of all the stuff on the Net" and you won't be far off. What makes these sites so great is that they allow you to use their engine (or software program) to search their database. Because the Internet is a cool, chaotic, and quirky collection, search engines are the tools that let you actually find what you're looking for (usually). So what you do is go to one of these sites, type your topic in a little text field, then the engine searches and shows you what it's found. Each of the search engines listed below comes with strengths and weaknesses. You'll end up finding one that you like the best (for your own cool, chaotic, and quirky reasons