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Searching the Internet

The Internet can be searched by using: 

Search Engines 
Also called "spiders" or "crawlers," a search engine is software that constantly roams the Internet indexing web sites. Search engines may index billions of web pages and are therefore capable of finding many more sites than a subject directory. These sites are not reviewed  or organized by  subject. Sites are displayed in order of popularity (such as Google) or relevance (such as Yahoo!).

Subject Directories 
A subject directory, or subject list, is a hierarchical subject tree which organizes Web documents. These are organized by humans and sites are reviewed for credibility, authority, etc. As sites are submitted they are assigned to a subject category such as "Entertainment," " Health," "Science," "Sports," etc. Directories find fewer and often more relevant sites. Yahoo! is one of the oldest and best known subject directories.

Last update: December 4, 2007