Begin your study of this section with an understanding of what the search tools are and how they differ. A Web directory, such as Yahoo, is a database of URL addresses for the hyperlinks and the entire database is entered manually at the keyboard by people working for Yahoo. Directories are man-made. Robots, spiders, search engines are all software programs that may run independently. Explore the tutorials in the resource list, below.
 
A Web author or webmaster needs to know how search engines, directories, spiders, and robots work in order to optimize META information for Web page position in the search engines.
 
Below this paragraph is a search engine. To find information about time zones, just type time zones into the white space in front of the search button, below, then click using the mouse on the Search button, the rectangle with the word Search. This action will take you to the home site of Fast search where you will be able to see a page of hyperlinks about time zones. To read more about time zones you simply single click on one of the hyperlinks on the "results" page.

Now, one more search.... What are you going to type into the search line if you want to see a picture of an old Ford Edsel? First I will try typing Ford Edsel into the white space and then I will click on the search button. This search is not effective because it lists too many unrelated Web sites about Edsel Ford, the person, and not about the 1959 Ford Edsel automobile models. Now I will try typing 1959 Ford Edsel. With this second attempt I have more hyperlinks to the 1959 Ford Edsel models. I also read in one hyperlink description on the results page that there was a 1958 Ford Edsel model. I need to return to the search and type 1958 Ford Edsel. When I do this, the new results page is loaded with hyperlinks related to the 1958 Ford Edsel models, surveys and other related links. You can see by this trial and error approach that a search will not give you the results you want about any topic if your search words are "too broad of a category". You will need to be specific in what you ask for in your searches.
Another thing to do when using Google is to click on the Advanced Search link when you first see the Google search page. This link is usually to the right of the search bar. When you arrive at the Advanced search page you will see search options such as With All of The Words, With the Exact Phrase, With At Least One of the Words, and Without the Words. Use Without the Words to eliminate topics on your search page, to narrow down the search. (This omits whatever you type into "Without the Words".) Do not type too many words into the line that reads "With All of the Words" or this is the same as having too broad of a search. Make the words count specifically for what you want to find. Also look on a search results page for the link to narrow down the search. "Exact Phrase" means just that, but when you type it in, do not use the quotation marks.
 
   To run a search at www.hitmill.com/ just click on the radio button in the blue search box above where the button is beside www.hitmill.com. Type in the text box search words and click on the command button (bar) the reads "Google Search". Next you will see a page of search results but instead of Google results being from the Web, the Google Search results will be from www.hitmill.com/. Try doing the search at www.hitmill.com/ by typing in "history of computers" (no quotation marks). Look at the results page and notice that most all of the results are for pages at hitmill.com. Now click the radio button next to Web and repeat the same search for "history of computers" (no quotation marks). This time each of the search results are from the Web so you see diffferent domains (addresses of other sites) in the Web addresses.
 
Also read about "How to Conduct An Advanced Internet Search" if you want to get really good at using a search engine.
 
Information about advanced searches varies with each search engine and may be found at the home site for each search engine. http://www.hitmill.com/html/promote/search.htm#list  is an alphabetical list of search engines and search directories.

Internet Search Tools and MP3 Searches, Napster

Internet Search Tools and Techniques
This "Sink or Swim" article is from Okanagan University College in Canada.
Enterprise Search
AltaVista Audio Search
Napster
MP3 Search.com
 

Meta Search

Meta-Search Engines (primer)
 

Gopher

Google's Directory of Gopher Sites
The Gopher Manifesto
Veronica FAQ
The Gopher Protocol
Cyber Gopher Search
 

Newsgroups

Searching Newsgroups
 
All About Newsgroups
 
Newsgroup Tips
from AOL.com/netfind
 

HytelNET

HytelNET Archive of TelNET Sites
HytelNET: First Directory of Internet Resources
History of Internet's first Hypertext Directory
Hytelnet and the Floodgap Hytelnet-HTTP Museum Gateway
 

FTP Searches

File Transfer Protocol Tutorial: Introduction to FTP
Filewatcher FTP Search
MetaFTP.com FTP Search Engine
Fast FTP Search