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| Internet Lore Lycos (http://www. lycos. com) was the first true search engine. Until that time, the search tools such as Yahoo relied on people to add resource descriptions and URLs. Lycos, on the other hand, sent spiders out looking for new Internet resources. Lycos Arachnid is Latin wolf spider. The wolf spider is the only spider that leaves its den to hunt for its prey rather than waiting for it to fall in their web, in much the same way that the Lycos search engine sends its spiders out hunting for new web pages as opposed to the older Yahoo waiting for people to drop web pages into its web.
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2. Search Engines
Search engines are the miracle of the Internet. These sophisticated tools seem to reach right into the global network, and scour its content at your command. In reality, they do not work exactly in this way, although the true nature of search engines is no less fascinating. Technically, in order to be called a Search Engine, a search tool must be made up of three major components:
The Interface
An Index
Crawlers
or Spiders
The Interface
This is the web page. It usually consists of a web form with text boxes for the keyword(s)
and other inputs that help fine tune what you want the search engine to search.
An Index
The index is a database that operates behind the web page. It represents a certain
portion of the Internet (no search engine can search the entire Internet). Some search
engines have large indexes, others have small ones. There are advantages to each.
Crawlers or Spiders
This is what really makes a search engine. Crawlers or spiders are programs that, in a
sense, are crawling through the Internet, like spiders crawling across a web. They are
constantly looking for web pages that they do not already know about…that are not
already in their index. They do this by searching through pages that they do know about
looking for new links. When they find one, they follow it, collect the information they
need for the index, and then come home to add the new page. Search Engines grow
automatically as a result of these crawlers or spiders.
Section : Finding Digital Resources
Page 1: Topic-Oriented Directories
Page 2: Search Engines
a: The Language of Search Engines
b: Advantages of Search Engines
c: Disadvantages of Search Engines
d: List of Search Engines
Page 3: Net-Smarts -- or becoming Netwise
Page 4: S.E.A.R.C.H.
