Sams Teach Yourself Internet and Web Basics All in One

2017-07-07 02:10:07

What's a Search Site?

Put simply, a search site ”which you may also see variously described as a search page, search tool , or search service ”is a Web page where you can conduct a search of the Web. Such pages have been set up by a variety of companies that offer you free Web searching and support the service, at least in part, through the advertising you'll see prominently displayed there. Figure 12.1 shows a popular search site, Excite.

Figure 12.1. Excite, a popular search site.

The term search engine is sometimes used to describe a search site. But this term more accurately describes the program a search site uses, behind the scenes, to perform searches. When you hear someone refer casually to a "search engine," just remember that they probably mean "search site."

No matter which search site you use, and no matter how you use it, what you get from a search site is a page of links, each pointing to a page the search site thinks might match what you're looking for. When using a search site, your job is to provide that tool with enough information about what you're searching for, so that the resulting "hit list" (see Figure 12.2) contains lots of good matches for you to explore.

Figure 12.2. Search sites show you list of links ”a "hit list" ”of Web pages and other resources that match what you told the search site you were looking for.

What's a Search Site?

Figure 12.1. Excite, a popular search site.

Figure 12.2. Search sites show you list of links ”a "hit list" ”of Web pages and other resources that match what you told the search site you were looking for.

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