Conducting Simple Searches of the Web

Authors & Contributors

A Web search site is similar in function to a database or library catalog. Web search sites contain millions of records on Internet sites, much as a database or library catalog contains records on books, periodicals, government documents, or other materials that might be found in a library. Web search sites allow you to search the Web for sites containing specific word(s) or phrase(s).

For instance, to locate information for a research paper about the growing role of computers in writing instruction, you could search a Web search site using one or more of the following words and phrases:

• writing
• teaching
• computers
• technology
• writing instruction
• computers and writing
• computer-based instruction

Leading Web search sites include:

• AllTheWeb (http://www.alltheweb.com)
• AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com)
• AOL Search (http://search.aol.com)
• Direct Hit (http://www.directhit.com)
• Excite (http://www.excite.com)
• Go.com (http://www.go.com)
• Google (http://www.google.com)
• HotBot (http://hotbot.lycos.com)
• Lycos (http://www.lycos.com)
• MSN Search (http://search.msn.com)
• Netscape Search (http://search.netscape.com)
• WebTop (http://www.webtop.com)