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What is Web Search?

A Look at the Definition of Web Search

By Wendy Boswell, About.com

We all get on the Web to find something, but what does this mean? What does the term Web search really consist of? There's quite a few ways to answer this, but it all boils down to this simple definition:

a search for information on the World Wide Web.

How's that for concise, huh? Well, here are some more resources to help you give that definition a bit more oomph.

Web Search Background

The History of the Web: The World Wide Web was officially introduced to the world on August 6, 1991 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Here are some World Wide Web history highlights.

The World Wide Web and the Internet: The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) are terms that to most people mean about the same thing. While they are related, their definitions are different.

How The World Wide Web Has Changed Society: The Web, officially launched as an offshoot of the Internet in 1989, has not been around that long. However, it has become a huge part of many people’s lives; enabling them to communicate, work, and play in a global context.

A Short History of the Internet: Internet history is interesting, if for nothing else than it's fascinating to see how far we've come in so short a time. Read this short history of the Internet, and learn more about the Internet history timeline.

Web Search Tools

What is a Search Engine?: Exactly what is a search engine? Basically, a search engine is a software program that searches for sites based on the words that you designate as search terms.

Do Search Engines Search the Entire Web?: In a word, no. Search engines have millions of pages in their databases (Google alone indexes close to eight billion), but none of them even come close to indexing the whole Web, let alone the Internet.

How to Pick a Search Engine: Pick the best search engines for your searching needs with Search Engines 101, a great way to explore more of your search topic, try a new search engine, and search more of the Web.

100 Search Engines: This table of contents contains all the Internet search engines profiled in the 100 Search Engines in 100 Days feature.

Google Cheat Sheet: Here are the top Google Shortcuts that any savvy Googler should have under his or her belt. You'll find that using these Google Search Shortcuts will greatly cut down on your Google search time, as well as make your Google searches more effective and more efficient.

Web Search Shortcuts

How to Find Anything on the Web: This is where you'll find the top Web search secret tips and methods; the best place to get the skinny on how to find anything on the Web.

What is RSS and How Does It Work?: Perhaps you've seen text or image buttons on various websites inviting you to "subscribe via RSS." Well, what does that mean exactly? What is RSS, what are RSS feeds, and how do you get them to work for you?

10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With RSS Feeds: Once you're all the way up to speed on RSS, you'll realize that there's so many different ways that you can use RSS feeds to help you in your Web searching and daily life...and here's ten that I've come up with for you.

Fifty Things You Can Do With RSS: RSS, a simple technology that makes content come to you, can be used literally hundreds of different ways to simplify your life. Here are just fifty different things you can do with RSS.

Web Search Safety

Ten Ways To Keep Your Search History Private: Most of us have no need to hide our search history, but there's no harm in more cautious Web surfing. Here are a few ways you can keep your searching history private.

Anonymous Surfing 101: Are you concerned about privacy on the Web? Then anonymous surfing, the ability to surf the Web without being tracked, is for you. Here are some frequently asked questions about anonymous Web surfing.

Free Spyware Removal Tools: If you're not careful on the Web, you can pick up some spyware. Here are my favorite free spyware removal tools. These are the sypware removal tools that I myself have tested out, and best of all, they are all free.

Anonymous Surfing with BugMeNot: If you're as tired as I am of sites forcing you to go through registration just to view their content, than BugMeNot is for you. It's easy to use and makes life much simpler, not to mention it's a good guard of your online privacy and enables you to surf anonymously.

What is HTTPS?: If you've ever seen an "https" in the URL address of a website, you might have wondered what it stands for.

Web Search in a Nutshell

These articles should give you just a small glimpse into the wild and wonderful world of Web search. There's just so much to be explored....everything from Free Movie Downloads to the Best Web Site of the Day to Web 2.0. Web search at its most basic definition is simply finding what you're looking for on the Web; however, there's so, so much more to it than that. Happy exploring!

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