Search Engines

The Internet is like a library - but without the librarians to catalogue everything and tell you what's where. So you need some means of searching. When you go to get a book from a library you know the book is there because either someone has told you, or you have looked it up in and index. On the Internet these two approaches are used in the from of Search Engines and Directories.

The most famous of the search engines is AltaVista - originally run by DEC, and now owned by Compaq. AltaVista is a farm of computers that spend all-day every-day following links from one site to another and recording the information gathered into a database. This means that AltaVista has the ability to find sites that might not have been publicised. The size of the database grows day by day and contains over 30 million distinct page references. so if you try in "Sample Stamps" you will get all references to the keywords on any pages anywhere!

Directories take the other approach, in that someone has to fill-in a form. Just  like in the library you must say where a site is, and what's in it. Then the computer has a look and a reference is placed in an appropriate section of the directory structure. So unless the publisher of a site has registered the site with all the directories you cannot be sure of finding the page.

Caveat:

Do not assume that the information on a page is correct - anyone can publish anything in a page. Always keeps an open mind and try to understand where the author is coming from.