Examples: Google, Ask Jeeves, Clusty and others. Yahoo and Microsoft also run their own search engines and and sites like meta-search and search.com will access mutiple search engines at once and combine the information.

At "search-engines" you usually type in some words they give you back a list of sites their computers say might help.

Not all searchengines rank places the same way. Be sure look far and wide rather just deep down the list on only one site.

Take advantage of different features different searchengines provide you with. Use the buttons at the top to focus on news or pictures or shopping instead of the whole web. Read some articles on the factors that skew results and plan ways to avoid the skewing. More on Search Engines soon.

Key thought: the search-engines try hard to give good answers to questions, but sales orientated web-site owners are always trying even harder to trick the searchengine computers. This "work" of others makes your and the searchengine's job harder.

Aol, Yahoo, MSN and About.com, are large "portals" . Thousands of smaller topic sites focus on more specific categories from knitting to running.

Portals often provide services like email, web-access, exchanging tips on a hobby, and even some retailers try to serve as topic portals.

A trusted and knowledgable topic site is a great way to find things on the web; they frequently search and exchange tips with people who share their interest. With a personal passion for a topic or activity they're usually proud to support and reccomend other web-sites providing useful information for the topic.

A Runner's web-site can be a fine place to look for shoe reviews or links about nursing a twisted ankle.

Asking a search engine about shoes will bury you with oportunist sites hoping to earn a commision for refering you elsewhere. Topic sites might also have ways to make money by your visit, but when they have a long term record of putting a topic first they realize that bad infomation would lose readers

Key thought: Informational sites with true love or academic intrest in a subject won't always expend the energies and cost that can assure high search ranking. While some high ranking sites have earned their way in by true admiration of knowledgable people, others have not. Take pains to find the real experts, not the flashy salesemen.

Directories are sites that attempt to list other sites by content or type. The largest directory is the DMOZ a non profit group. Some directories are stricter than others in their listing, but most will provide at least some oversight trying to decide that sites they list are truly legitimate in the category listed.

Using directories by themselve can be tricky. The directory lists are usually not made in order of quality. Some directories are little more than junk mail created to promote fast talking sales sites.

Good engines like the DMOZ will often list a site in only one place even if the site is superior to other sites listed in specific sub categories. A sporting goods site with great sections on a lot of different sports won't be listed in specific topics like x-country skiing, even though that site might be far better than the cross country skiing sites listed. Read more soon.

Key thought: use directories to find good portals on general topics, then look through the links on portal's to gain more knowledge.