How to Use Search Engines

All of the search engines have some popular selections already listed for you.

Below these selections are other pre-made selections on a variety of topics. They provide links to some of the most popular web pages on the subjects shown.

When you make one of these selections, your browser will load another web page that will contain further links to choose from. These links will be a further breakdown of the choice selected. You can continue in this manner until you locate what you are interested in.

On the right side of the page you will see links to current event articles from Netscape’s Netcenter, as well as a major news network. You can also search for a stock quote for your favorite stock. Most of the search engine web pages have the same or similar capabilities, but they will all look slightly different. What you see here is only an example of what is available. You should browse the various search engine web pages and choose for yourself the one that suits your needs the best.

Another example is the AltaVista search page. This page is found at www.altavista.com, and has a feature that allows you to gradually break your search down by category.

When I do, my browser will load the following screen.

You can select the site from this list to go back to. For example, if you want to start a new search, you can go directly back to the search engine page you started with instead of clicking the “Back” button repeatedly until you are at that page.

When you are on a site, you can quickly find other related sites by selecting the button to the right of the location address area that is titled “What’s Related”. This will open a list of sites that Netscape has determined are similar, or related to the topic of the page you are currently viewing.

You can also initiate a search from any website by choosing the “Search” button on the button bar at the top of your screen.

When you want to search for people, either for an Email address, a phone number, or a mailing address, there are several sites that you can use. Most of them work in the same manner, so we will use just one in this document.

As seen earlier, there are people finder search choices available on the Yahoo.com web page. You can choose one of these, or use one of the people finder search choices offered by most search engines.

A recent web article on ZDNet listed their 5 top people finders. Although we do not particularly endorse any one over another, they are listed here for your information.

AnyWho: This sleek little site powered by AT&T Labs searches for home and biz phones, 1-800 numbers, email addresses, Web sites and has a reverse telephone search. http://www.anywho.com/

InfoSpace: Along with a top-notch people search, InfoSpace also features a lot of handy links to other Web necessities such as communities, city guides, government sites and more. http://www.infospace.com/

WhoWhere: A good little phone, email and site finder. Plus it also has a few cool specialty searches, including a genealogy search, public records search and celebrity search. http://www.whowhere.lycos.com

Yahoo People Search: One of the best email searches available. It's advanced option lets you make searches based on domain name, organization tag or even old email addresses. http://people.yahoo.com/

SwtichBoard: Search for people, businesses, Web sites, maps and more. With the cool What's Nearby feature, you plug in address and WhoWhere returns all the restaurants, stores, parks, etcetera in the area. http://www.switchboard.com/

Choose your people search engine based upon what information you want to find, and what information you have on the person you are seeking. We will demonstrate one of the people searches here. Although there are quite a few similarities, each people search engine has its own specialties, and therefore its own requirements, and the search pages will look quite a bit different.

The Yahoo People Search provides an opportunity to locate a person through an Email search or a Telephone search. Each search is conducted independent of the other.

At both the top and the bottom of the list you will see links titled “First”, “Prev”, “Next” and “Last”. These links will allow you to move to other pages in the search results.

When you perform a Telephone Search, the process will be the same, but the results will look different.

The Switchboard search engine also gives you the opportunity to find email, maps, and what’s nearby the person you are seeking, and also allows you to update your own listing if you wish. When you click on the person’s name in the results list another page will load that give you many choices to browse, including a map that will pinpoint the neighborhood of the person selected.