<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Internet Search Engines</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Online Troubleshooting Resources: HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Online Support Sections" HREF="onlinesupport.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Usenet Newsgroup Archives" HREF="usenet.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="section" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Online Troubleshooting Resources: HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="onlinesupport.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="usenet.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="section" ><H1 CLASS="section" ><A NAME="searchengines" ></A >4. Internet Search Engines</H1 ><P > I frequently use a Search Engine to retrieve helpful or necessary information from the 'net. These engines catalogue pages from commercial, personal and academic websites, as well as Mailing Lists and the like. </P ><P > There are several good search engine. It is worthwhile becoming very familiar with the operational details of at least one non-directory engine to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of your search efforts. You probably already have a favorite - I like <EM >Google.com</EM >, and will discuss it in a little more detail. </P ><P > The key to a successful search is to use a good set of keywords. If you're getting a specific error message, you might search for its text. Otherwise, you need to find a few relevant words describing your problem. Then, by trial and error, you should be able to find some pertinent information. </P ><DIV CLASS="section" ><H2 CLASS="section" ><A NAME="google" ></A >4.1. Google.com</H2 ><P > This <A HREF="http://www.google.com" TARGET="_top" >engine</A > has several novel features that are described in its <A HREF="http://www.google.com/technology/" TARGET="_top" >Google Technology page</A >. In particular, the engine often returns the most useful pages first; in fact, I have often found that the first listed page contains the information I need. Because it caches web pages, it is relatively fast at displaying requested items. It has a so-called <SPAN CLASS="trademark" >GoogleScout</SPAN >™ feature, activated by clicking on the "similar pages" links, that provides additional relevant links with each item returned. </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="onlinesupport.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="usenet.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Online Support Sections</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Usenet Newsgroup Archives</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >