Search Engines compile data using "spiders" and "robots" and create their own indexes of the world wide web from that data.

Meta Searchers/Crawlers search the world wide web by using the indexes from multiple search engines at once.

Subject Directories are created and maintained by human editors who review sources and make decisions about their inclusion in the index based on pre-determined selection criteria.

Search engines are useful, but advanced or specialized search engines, meta searchers, and subject directories can sometimes be even more useful when doing research.

Google, Yahoo,  Altavista, and Bing are good generalized search engines but give these other tools a try!

Metasearchers:  metacrawler,  dogpile,  zuula,  mamma

Google Advanced Search: you're not searching 'til you use limiters - just trust us on this.

Google Scholar: find scholarly articles (rarely full-text, but your WWCC Library can help you find the full article when you find a citation here)

Wolfram Alpha: math and science people love this - (it's a "computational knowledge engine") - also check for stats here

USA.gov: all United States government, all the time

Internet Public Library (IPL): links to everything librarians wish you would use from the web

WWCC Library Class/Assignment Research and Subject Guides: links to both database and web resources

Remember to evaluate sources using the  RCBCA (Relevence, Credibility, Bias, Currency, Accuracy) test !!!