1. Web Search Tutorial: What is the Internet, anyway?

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If you visit the Pandia Powersearch all-in-one Web search gateway you will find a lot of different search engines, directories and other search services. The questions are: which ones should you use, and how should you use them?

The main focus of the Web search tutorial will be -- you guessed it -- the World Wide Web.

Still, it is important to remember that the Internet is more than the Web, i.e. colorful pages like this one with text, pictures and hyperlinks.

You will, for instance, find a lot of information in messages sent to so-called "newsgroups", i.e. specialised discussion forums that cover everything from the Beach Boys to astrophysics.

If you have an Internet connection and a newsreader program (included in Netscape and Microsoft Outlook Express), you have access to these groups, and -- what is even more important -- you may search this "Usenet" by using the Google Groups service.

E-mail is also a part of the Internet, of course. Fortunately you are not able to search the content of other people's e-mail. You may, however, look for their e-mail addresses, using services found at Pandia People Search.

Lately the Web has seen the growth of the blogosphere, a large number of personal (or not so personal) weblogs where people give their opinion of their topic of interest. High quality blogs will help you track the latest development in your field of interest.

The regular search engines will include pages from such blogs, but there are also special blog search engines around that might help you narrow down your search.

It should also be noted that lots of databases are accessible through the World Wide Web. The main search engines do not, however, map the content of these databases. Still, special directories may lead you to them.

You will find the Web addresses to most of the service mentioned in this Web search tutorial on our Powersearch page.

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