TAFEWA Central West

The Internet is a global network of networked computers, and the World Wide Web (WWW) is part of that network. The World Wide Web provides access to a collection of documents from all over the world, on just about every subject. It is very important that you evaluate information obtained from the web bearing in mind that anyone can publish on the web and some material is false and/or misleading or may just be out-of-date.

Search Engines use robot programs called spiders that crawl the web seeking search engine content. Use a search engine in the same way as you use the index in the back of a book to find specific information.

Subject Directories are created by people and are useful when you are not sure exactly where to start. Use a subject directory to search for general information.

Meta Search Engines conduct very quick searches across a wide range of other search engines which means results are not comprehensive.

Invisible Web is made up of thousands of specialised searchable databases which are typically not recognised by search engines or included in subject directories.

For tips and techniques on evaluating Internet resources, check out New Mexico State University Library or Curtin University of Technology.

To find an online tutorial to help with searching or creating web pages, check out FindTutorials.com or University of California.

Don't forget that most of these tools have different techniques for searching, such as placing search phrases into (brackets) or "double quotations" therefore, it is worth reading their help guides - it will save you time in the long run. Or, check out Search engine features or the comparison of search features.