One way of finding information on the Internet is to use a search engine such as Alta Vista, Lycos, HotBot or Excite. The first and most important concept to understand about search engines is that they DO NOT search the Internet. They DO search databases of information ABOUT the Internet. This is an important distinction and it will help you to understand why different results are reached by different engines.

Which engine is the best? Everyone will have a different answer to this question because their needs and personal preferences will contribute to their answer. We suggest that you start with the following engines because they are a combination of comprehensive, flexible, powerful and sophisticated engines.

AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/)	HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com)
Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)	Excite (http://www.excite.com)