Using Search Engines to find Web sites

Search Engines provide us with the ability to search the vast resources of the Internet ...

  ... but WHAT is a Search Engine, and are they all the same?

Search Engines are used to find all types of information and media on the Internet.  Search Engines provide lists of Web sites. Each Search Engine searches differently and finds different information.  NO single Search Engine will search the entire Internet.  Use several Search Engines or a meta Search Engine if you are doing research.

When you use a Search Engine it seems like you are directly searching the entire Web, but that's not really what happens.  You are really searching a database or index of URL links.  You can only find links to sites that are included in the Search Engine's index.  These links may have been collected by a program called a "Web crawler", or by a human evaluator.  Quite often links are displayed because someone paid a fee to have their web site included.
	And I bet, "With my net I can get them I bet. I bet with my net I can get those things yet!" Dr.Seuss from The cat in the Hat