What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is a tool that enables you to locate information on the World Wide Web. Search engines use the keywords you enter to find Web sites which contain the information you seek.

A search engine typically "spiders" the web, collecting or making note of the types of information found on a site, maintaining a large database of the results. When you search, the engine sifts through it's data and returns the results that best meet your request - based on often complex rules. You don't see any of this, you get a nicely formatted list of links. To learn about what the search engine looks for on your page review page elements.

What is a Directory?

Similar to a search engine, a directory arranges the web site it knows about into categories and subcategories. These are often reviewed by human beings for inclusion in the categories. The categories are similar to a phone book. Yahoo's directory is one of the largest.