Note: The following is a synopsis of information taken from the Sink or Swim web site. Please see that site for additional information.

The most common way to search the web is with a search engine. Search engines allow you to enter a term (or terms). It then searches the web sites in its database and provides you with a list of links to sites that contain those terms.

Different search engines use different methods to search for terms on web pages and therefore yield different results. For this reason, it is worth your while to use more than one type of search engine. Click here to see a comparison of different search engines.

Search engines find web pages with a given word on them, therefore many of the results may be irrelevant to the researcher. (For example, I have done a search looking for information on the 17th century philosopher Spinoza. The results of my search included links to a high school band in New York which happens to call itself Spinoza.) Needless to say, such results waste valuable research time. It is therefore helpful to know some basic techniques to limit a search.

All search engines have a default way of combining search terms. It is not always easy to figure out the method a given search engine uses (Sometimes it is explained under "help", but not always.) However, the user can usually modify a search by using pull down menus or the following techniques.

Best Bet Search Syntax - these techniques are most useful in simple searches. They will limit what the search engine retrieves from its database.

Place the plus sign ( + ) in front of all words you wish to retrieve
The search engine will only retrieve pages with both of the terms on it. 
For example: 
 

+Origen +Alexandria

Place a phrase within double quotations
The search engine will retrieve pages that contain that phrase (as opposed to web pages that happen to contain both words separately.) 
 

For example: "patron saints"

Both of these techniques can be used together
The search engine will retrieve pages that contain both of the phrases. 
 

"animal rights"    +"United States"

Place a minus sign (-) in front of all words you wish to be excluded from the search
The search engine will avoid pages that contain that word or phrase. 
 

-"Protestant"

Boolean Logic -Several search tools allow you to use Boolean logic. This option is often found under a section titled "advanced searches." Boolean Logic is good for more complex searches. It consists of operations that combine several databases. Some examples of basic Boolean operators are as follows:
 

Here are some online tutorials which explain how to do research on the Web.

Sink or Swim: Internet Search Tools & Techniques
http://www.ouc.bc.ca./libr/connect96/search.htm
Conducting Research on the Web:
http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/research.html
Evaluating Internet Resources
http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/evaluate.html
Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html
A+Research and Writing: Learning to do research on the web
http://www.ipl.org/teen/aplus/internet.htm

Search Engines: Search their database for a given term. (Compiled by computer "spiders" or "robot" which search the Internet through links between various web pages. These web pages are then added to the computer's database.)

Note: Search Engines do not search the Internet as it is at this very moment. Rather, they search their databases, that is, the Internet frozen at a particular moment in time. Therefore, you would not us a Search Engine to find late breaking news or sites that just went up.

When to use: When you want to find a unique keyword, phrase, quote, or other information that is buried within the text of web pages.

Northern Light: http://www.northernlight.com/
Alta Vista: http://www.altavista.com/
Fast: http://www.alltheweb.com/
Google: http://www.google.com/
HotBot: http://hotbot.lycos.com/
Infoseek: http://infoseek.go.com/

Multi-threaded Search Engines (also called Meta-Search Engines): Search the databases of several search engines at a time and provide the top ranking results.

Note: They yield fewer results than Search Engines, but the results you get are often more relevant since they are the top ranking ones.

When to use: When you are in a hurry (these do very quick searches) and when you are having trouble finding something with Search Engines (your chances are increased since it searches many Search Engines at once.)

Dogpile: http://www.dogpile.com/
Inference Find: http://www.infind.com/
Metacrawler: http://www.metacrawler.com/index.html
ProFusion: http://www.profusion.com/
SavvySearch: http://www.savvysearch.com/
The Big Hub: http://www.thebighub.com/

Subject Directories: An index of subject categories compiled by humans. They have smaller databases then search engines, but they tend to yield more relevant results.

Note: These only provide links to web sites (they do not store them in a data base like Search Engines.) Therefore, they often have empty links (when sites move or are deleted.)

When to use: These are most useful when looking up a subject, rather than a particular piece of information.

Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/
Lycos: http://www.lycos.com/
LookSmart: http://www.looksmart.com/
Magellan: http://magellan.excite.com/
Open Directory Project: http://dmoz.org/
Excite: http://www.excite.com/
Snap: http://www.snap.com/
Beaucoup: http://www.beaucoup.com/

Library Gateways: A collection of links recommended and reviewed by librarians or experts in that specific field. These are very useful for finding high quality information sites, many of which are inaccessible to search engines.

Note: Remember, search engines use computer "spiders" to find web sites. Many valuable sites are written by professors, researchers, government agencies, and other experts that are not available to these spiders due to security restrictions on their servers. This portion of the web is sometimes called "the invisible web." Library gateways provide access to many of these sites.

When to use: When you are looking for high quality information sites that have been reviewed and evaluated by subject specialists.

Academic Information: http://www.academicinfo.net/
AlphaSearch: http://www.calvin.edu/library/searreso/internet/as/
Digital Librarian: http://www.servtech.com/~mvail/home.html
Direct Search: http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/direct.htm
Infomine: http://infomine.ucr.edu/Main.html
Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org/ref/
Librarian's Index to the Internet: http://lii.org/
Living Web Library: http://www.livingweb.com/
The New Athenaeum: http://members.spree.com/athenaeum/mguide1.htm
PINAKES: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html
My Virtual Reference Desk: http://www.refdesk.com/

Clearing houses: Acts as a collection of subject directories on a given topic. They often rank the web sites as well. This is a very useful tool to examine a subject area.

Search Edu.com: http://www.searchedu.com/
Argus Clearinghouse: http://www.clearinghouse.net/
About.com http://about.com/
WWW Virtual Library: http://www.vlib.org/
Price's Lists of Lists: http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm
World Wide Web Subject Catalog: http://www.uky.edu/Subject/subjectintro.html
The Eric Clearinghouse: http://www.accesseric.org/
The Voice of the Shuttle: Humanities Research: http://vos.ucsb.edu/