About Site Searches

The major search sites mentioned in this chapter are for finding information that may reside anywhere on the Web. Because they have that enormous job to do, they can't always find everything that's on a particular server.

However, large Web sites often provide their own search tools, just for finding stuff on that site alone. For example, Microsoft's Web site is huge, encompassing thousands of pages. So Microsoft supplies a search tool (you can open it from a SEARCH link atop most pages) just for finding stuff at Microsoft. Even fairly small sites may have their own search tools; Figure 12.18 shows one for Discover magazine.

Figure 12.18. Discover magazine supplies its own search tool just for finding stuff on its site .

You use a site's search tool just as you would any search site, by entering a search term . Many such search tools even support multi-word searches and operators ”but always check the instructions accompanying the search tool to find out whether it supports fancy searches.