Introduction to Searching the Internet

There are a whole host of possible sites to perform searches from. The big questions are which one to use and how to use it. Although most searching is done using the World Wide Web, there are also other places on the Internet to search. These include newsgroups, databases and FTP.

Newsgroups are messages sent to a group of people. It’s like e-mailing to a large group of people, not knowing who will read it or respond. People use newsgroups to ask questions, answer questions (the Good Samaritans of the Internet) and post interesting information. Each newsgroup will have a specific topic so similar messages should all be together. Many newsgroups are public and very searchable. Outlook Express and Navigator both come with free newsgroup readers. You can also search this “Usenet” by visiting the Google Groups service.

Databases abound all over the Internet and will typically have a web interface. These include people searches, e-mail address searches and phone directories. Examples include Superpages and Bigfoot. Numerous other searchable databases exist that are text based and will be discussed in an advanced tutorial. It should be noted that most search engines can not properly index these databases requiring a bit of additional legwork if you are seeking certain types of data.

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is what the Internet started out to be. People copying files between computers over any distance. FTP is a set of standards on  how files are to be transferred allowing anyone on any type of computer to share files with any other computer, no matter how different they are. When you download a program from a web site, you are probably using FTP. To allow this to happen, most browsers have a limited FTP program built in, but there are also standalone FTP programs that offer additional capabilities for sharing files. AllTheWeb and Lycos

What kinds of searching should I use? Click on "next" to learn more... Use these links throughout this tutorial to advance through the lessons.