## 2.6 General search engines

Image: Duck Duck Go, Inc.

An enormous amount of information is offered worldwide via the internet. Search engines make sure that you can find the information in different ways.
There are many search engines, of which Google is the best known and most used. Other well-known search engines are Yahoo and Bing, less well known are Startpage.com and DuckDuckGo (privacy-oriented search engines) or Ecosia (sustainable search engine). Each search engine has its own way of searching. So, you will see differences in their hits; when you compare them, the results generated are in a different order. That is why it is smart to try different search engines.
A search engine is not a database. A search engine is a website on which you can search for other websites, while a database is a digital collection of data. If you want to know more about the differences between search engines and databases, take a look at this video.
PLEASE NOTE: Virtually anyone can publish information on the Internet, with no factchecking editorial staff. You will therefore have to assess the reliability of internet sources yourself. See module 4 for an overview of assessment criteria.