Name____________________________ Date_____________ Period __________ 

The purpose of this activity is to explore the uses of search engines.  By completing this activity you will become more familiar 
with how to conduct a web search and you will know if all of the search engines are the same.  Type the following URL into the
 address box at the top of your browser and press enter.  Then answer the following questions.

http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/links/Major_Search_Engines/The_Major_Search_Engines/index.html

  1. How many different search engines are listed on this page? _____24______
  2. Which of the major search engines is the oldest? This means the first one started? ____________Yahoo____________________
  3. How is Ask Jeeves different from other search engines? ______You type in a whole question on this site. The other sites you only search for words or phrases.________

4. Click on a few of the sites listed on this page then answer. You will have to use the back button on you browser to get back to this page. Do you find direction for how to do a search on most of the search engines? _________________No_________

Click on "How do search engines work" to answer the following question.

  1. Can a search engine find changes made in a web page? _______Yes_______
  2. Can directories like Yahoo find changes made in a web page? ____No__________
  3. What is the name of the part of a search engine which looks for changes in web pages? _______Spider_________
  4. Will all search engines report the same thing when you use them? _________

    5. No some of them are very different__________

    Type in the following URL and answer the following questions.

    http://www.directhit.com/help/search.html

  5. Should you type in whole sentences when doing a search? No, only a word or phrase
  6. Do you need to put words in like "and", "or", "at"? ___________No__________
  7. Does it make any difference which order you type in the words you are searching for when you are using more than one word? _Not on this search engine___________
  8. Do you always have to spell the words correctly when doing a search? ___No______
  9. Do you have to capitalize words when doing a search? ______No________
  10. Do you have to leave a space between words when doing a search? ___Yes________
  11. Should you try searching for a synonym? _______Yes_____________
  12. From which search engine are you getting this information? __Direct Hit_____

    Type in the following address and complete the following questions.

    http://www.go.com/Help/help.html?key=HELP_T00008_SRCHQUIK

  13. Look at the directions for doing a search here. Are they the same as the last directions? ________No_____________
  14. What is the purpose for using a comma between words when doing a search here? __You use a comma to separate proper names._____________________________
  15. Why would you use a + sign when doing a search here? __You use a plus to search for two words at the same time.______________________________
  16. What is the name of the search engine that you are using now? _Go/Infoseek__
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