The increasing hunger for information has encountered in the twentieth century an unexpected outlet. The invention of the Internet and of the Web has turned us all into ferocious consumers of data provided by the web search. Undoubtedly, it is a question if the Internet and the Web came as a response to a prior need, that is, the need to be informed, or if, on the contrary, the Internet and the Web, in case they did not create that need ? which would be a mere overstatement, at least amplified necessity in question.

What is, at the bottom line, the web search? Fist of all, it comes as a solution to a common effort to keep in touch with the current events all over the world, simultaneously enhancing the access to that enormous amount of information. Web search also responds to other kinds of requirements. It furnishes the possibility to acquire knowledge from different domains: culture, history, entertainment, medicine, and politics, just to mention a few.

The most pleasing feature of web search is that it embodies the easiest way to search something. All one has to do in order to learn something from whatever domain is to sit comfortably at home in a familiar chair and operate on the personal computer. No one bothers you, you do not have to go to the bookshop or to the library, you do not have to wait a certain TV program, nearly everything linked to the Internet searches depends on how you want to do it. Moreover, and that is probably the most agreeable facet, it offers you the intimacy of the pursuit and it protects you from interacting with unwelcome, but necessary people, as it is common otherwise.

And how do we work out such a search? The main thing we need is one of the many search engines already existing on the Internet, of course, regardless of other tools and basic means, such as a computer ? or other physical support ? and a connection to the Internet. Search engines, even if complicated as technology, are as simple as possible from the user's point of view. They are designed to enable the most natural, the most spontaneous way to search something on the Web.

Search engines such as Google or Yahoo! are appreciated for such qualities. The effort sums up to putting into words the thing you are interested in, to typing it in the search bar and to pressing the ?search? button. Obviously, we can scarcely call that ?effort?. Even though the word you decide to key in does not correspond to what you have intended, either because a spelling error has occurred, or because the word simply does not fit what you had in mind, most search engines give you suggestions and enlarge the range of the search. This characteristic often proves to be a fruitful aspect of the engine, and demonstrates the ability of its designers to anticipate certain behaviors of the users.

Now, how do we appreciate the variety of such search tools? The most popular are Google and Yahoo!, but we should know we could rely on many others. Most of us stick to the engine they first ever used, mostly because it became very familiar to us. Choosing a different engine may be a difficult task, mainly because you are not motivated to do it ? you are satisfied with the old one, which proved to be extremely reliable.