In today's world, when most people talk about search engines they are referring to Web sites that you can go to, type in a keyword and be given a bunch of resulting Web sites where you can find information pertaining to the keyword you submitted.

In other words, search engines organize and categorize as many of the Internet's Web sites as they can and then try to match those sites with your search string.

As someone looking for information, all you have to do is go to these sites and type in your search words. However, it is important to make sure your search is specific enough that you aren't bombarded with millions of useless results.

For example, if you type for "hotels," don't expect to find what you are looking for. A search such as "Yuma area hotels" or "San Diego Hotels" would be a search more likely to produce useful results.

Generally, search engines fall into two categories depending on how they collect information and organize the Web sites in their database. And some use both of these methods.

The first is those that use spiders. Also called robots, search engines using this technique crawl through the Internet reading and archiving titles, body copy, alt text and other information from as many pages within as many Web sites as it can access.

Generally, Web site owners will go to specific search engines and request that a spider be sent to their site when it is ready to be indexed. This is often done after a site has been built or when changes have been made and the owner wants the site to be re-indexed.

So, how do you list your site with this type of search engine? It is simple!

Let's use Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/) as an example. Once you arrive on their home page, scroll down to the very bottom and look for a list of links to areas of their site. Look for the button that says "Add Your Site" or "Add URL" and click that.

From there, you will be taken to a page where you enter your site's address and your email address. Type in that information and click "Add Site to Lycos". You will be given a message confirming that your site will be spidered and that you should see it in the database within a few weeks. You’re done!

The second type is known as a directory. In this case, Web sites are entered into the database by hand after they are submitted to the site with the address, title and description. In theory, because each submission is reviewed by a human, your searches should have less irrelevant or inappropriate results. Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) is the leading example of a directory type search engine.

Yahoo!'s submission process is more complex, but, by following the instructions on their site, your Web page will be indexed according to the title and description you provide.

In addition to these two most popular search engine types, new hybrids are popping up making it easier for people to find information.

One example is Ask Jeeves (http://www.ask.com). This site is made for people to ask questions as you would normally speak or write instead of trying to find an effective search string, making it very user friendly.

Another is Dogpile.com (http://www.dogpile.com). Dogpile actually performs your search on many of the popular search engines for you and returns the top results for each, all within their site.

Lastly, if you are still having trouble finding what you want, you may want to try a specialty search engine. These search engines specialize in finding specific types of information. For example, there are many that specialize in just organizing news, shopping, medical information, MP3s or regional information to name a few.

For a great site dedicated to search engine information and a list of links to these types of specialty search engines, visit Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/).