How can you choose a good search engine? Ask yourself :

1. What type of information is in the search engine?
2. How is the search engine organized?

Most search engines collect all sorts of Web pages on wide variety of topics in their vast databases. All large and general search engines, such as Altavista and Google, allow you to search by keyword. Some, like Yahoo and Excite, also organize sites into subject categories. These subject categories are great if you are looking for a site that has information on a general topic.

Specialized search engines are sometimes organized around type of material, like newspaper articles or stock market quotes, or they may search pages on a particular subject, such as medical or travel information. They are good sources for finding the best sites for your research because they may provide site reviews or only include those Web pages that have verified information.

When you use a search engine you are looking for terms that appear on pages in the search engine's database, rather than searching the Web in real time. Even the largest search engines only contain about 1/6 of the Web in their database, so if you only use your favorite search engine you will be missing out on over 75% of the available resources.

Every search engine is different, from the way you search it to what it contains. You will probably want to select a few search engines and learn the tricks for searching those effectively.