This document provides an overview of search engines, including: 1. A definition of search engines and a brief history noting the first tools like Archie and early search engines like W3Catalog. 2. An explanation of how search engines work by crawling websites and indexing pages, and different types like crawler-based and paid inclusion engines. 3. A list of advantages like accessing diverse information easily and disadvantages like too many visitors and leads. 4. Popular current search engines are identified as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and descriptions of their origins and services. 5. Tips for better searches include keeping queries simple, descriptive, and focusing on how pages may be written.