What Are Search Engines and Web Directories?
Search engines are huge databases of web pages that have been assembled automatically by machines. There are two types of search engines: individual and meta. Web directories are databases that have been created by humans and are used to organize web sites into subject categories. • Individual Search Engines compile their own searchable databases, using “spiders” or “robots” that read the web pages and all other links within the web site. Spiders return to these sites periodically to note any changes and to record the changes in the database. When you use a search engine, you will retrieve “hits” based on the web sites contained in that search engine’s database. Examples include: Alta Vista, Excite, Google, HotBot, Lycos • Meta-Search Engines do not compile databases. Instead, they search various individual search engines simultaneously on behalf of the user, and retrieve “hits” from each of those databases. Examples include: DogPile, Go2Net, Metacrawler, WebCrawler • Web Directory dat
