Marc Pugliese - Theology and Religion LibGuide: Search Engines

Search Engines

Problem: finding good, solid information on the Internet.
The Internet is made up of millions and millions of websites. How do you find the proverbial needle in the haystack (or tiny fly in the Web)?

Solution: Search Strategies that Work.
How can you search more efficiently and effectively?
By using a search engine or subject directory.

What is a Search Engine?
It's a computer program. A search engine is designed to look for information that matches the words you have typed in. It uses a program (called a spider) to look for websites that match the "keywords".

There are two kinds of search engines: a general search engine, like Altavista or Google, and a meta search engine, such as Dogpile.

There are also other places to search on the web for information - a subject search (or guide) engine, like Wikipedia, and a search directory, like Yahoo!.

What's the Difference?

• Yahoo! is a directory built by humans. It never has the newest web sites in the directory portion -- humans work slowly.
• Wikipedia is considered to be an encyclopedia, but they provide links and information at the end of each article in order to help the user locate very relevant resources.

Search engine sites usually have more websites listed, and they are more up-to-date. Yet they may not contain the best links, the ones which the most are relevant to your search, as the ones that are indexed in a directory.

The library databases are not general search engines, although the software that is used to search for relevant articles is a type of search engine. The databases are paid subscriptions, like magazine subscriptions. Most of the journals and articles found in the Databases and EBooks sections on the library website will not be found anywhere for free online.

• General search engines are good for looking for specific information.
• Meta Search Engines are good for determining which search engine might get the kind of results you are looking for. A meta search engine searches several other search engines, then shows you the results so that you can decide which engine would be better for the topic you are interested in. Most meta search engines return 10-15 hits from each site, which is considerably less than found by doing a direct search on one of the search engines. Each search engine and directory has strengths and weaknesses.
• Subject guides are good for finding general information. 

Why So Many?

Each search engine and directory has its strengths and weaknesses.
It is always a good idea to complete your search on at least 2  search engines and one directory to see which gives you better results.

Not every subject is covered in-depth on every search engine or directory.
You can do a search on 2 engines and come up with completely different results.

Learn More

• How do Search Engines Work?
• Increasing Accuracy
• Recap and more help
• Search Engines Practice Quiz