Search tools

Once you know how to use your browser and start surfing, you’ll wonder: Among several billion web pages, how do you find the one you want? Use a search tool, often referred to as a search engine. You don’t have to buy or install search tools—they are just on the web, like any of the other web pages. But they are different from other web pages in that you can type in the names of subjects you want to find, and the search tool will go look for it.

Important Point Number One

When you enter a query in a search tool, it does not go running all over the world looking for pages that match your query. It looks only in its own database that it has compiled according to its own special criteria. There are many search tools, and they each have their own criteria. So you might ask three different search tools to find “Briards” (a dog breed) and come up with three different lists of web pages about Briards.