The top search engines are Google, with about 62% of search traffic, Yahoo! (20%), Microsoft (9%), AOL (4%) and Ask.com (4%).

Here are some tips to make your searches more effective.

• Choose your keywords wisely. Select descriptive, specific words.
• Use quotes for an exact match.
• Google and most engines are NOT case sensitive
• By default, Google (and most others) only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results.
• Search engines ignore common words and characters such as "where" and "how", as well as certain single digits and single letters. If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it.
• If your search term has more than one meaning (bass, for example, could refer to fishing or music) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.

Some of these types of operations are easier with the advanced search feature. Google's advanced search is easy to reach - there's a link right next to the search box on the home page. Yahoo!'s is harder to get to. Using Advanced Search means you don't have to remember the special puncuation or characters. One of the best features is that it gives you the ability to search a site that may not have its own search engine by using the Domain box. Also, if you find one page that is very helpful and you want more like it, try the Similar box near the bottom.

There are a number of "meta" search engines around that will collect results from several search engines. Dogpile is probably the best known. Keep in mind - the issue is rarely finding more pages, it's finding the right ones. Clusty collects results from many sites, but returns them with a list of topics on the left side that help you to quickly hone in on your answers.

Sometimes the general search engines like Yahoo! and Google aren't what you need - Noodletools has a page that helps you figure out where to turn, depending on the type of research you are doing or question you want to answer.