You keep hearing about all this information that’s out there on the Internet somewhere, but you might be thinking “…so how do I find it all?”  Good question.  Read on…..

There are a couple of main ways of finding information on the Internet.  Firstly, and the most straightforward way, is to enter the address of a particular website in the address bar of your browser.  For example, you might visit www.accringtonstanley.co.uk.  This will take you straight to the site you’re looking for within seconds.  Easy.

What happens, though, when you don’t know of a web address that contains the information you’re looking for?  The answer lies in facilities known as “search engines”.  A search engine is a bit of software found on the Internet that searches through the millions of pages and pulls out the ones it thinks might be most interesting to you. So by typing the words “Accrington Stanley” in a search engine, you’ll be presented with a long list of web sites and pages that include information about Accrington Stanley.

The best known search engine on the Internet today is called Google.  You can find Google by typing this address in your browser: http://www.google.co.uk 

Google is the most popular search engine out there, but it’s not the only one.  You could try some of these too: www.yahoo.co.uk; www.altavista.co.uk; www.ask.co.uk; www.lycos.co.uk, the list goes on and on but they are some of Google’s main rivals.

If you’ve never tried a search engine before, give it a go!  Type in something of interest to you – for example your local town, sports team or hobby – and see what comes back.  You’ll often be amazed at just how much stuff there is out there!