The web has a humungous amount of information, all
interlinked. This is good. Also, bad. How do you find what you want? So
you use a search engine and end up at Fred Nurk's page in Baluchistan
b'cos he mentions all your key words in his poem to yak butter.
Search engines work in different ways. Some, like Yahoo,
are directories, which break the topics into sections and sub sections and
so on and do a keyword search. This will return pages which contain your
keywords only. Others, like Excite, are concept engines that try and guess
what you want, so if you enter "June" you might get pages with 'calendar',
'astro-sign' or 'moon' back.
If you are seriously searching and not just surfing read
'The Spider's Apprentice'
on 'How to use Search Engines'. This is absolutely the bestest article
available and covers the subject from introduction to MSc level.
To cut down on time remember 'local is lekker' and turn
off your images. Ananzi is the S.A. search engine and covers most
everything in S.A., so start with this. If you know the topic, and want a
local site try the Financial mail Bluechip sites. Otherwise, its into the
wild blue yonder - just do it!
