Search engines and how they make finding what you want on the Internet easier has previously been mentioned. Last month I promised to return to the topic, so here goes. Google (www.google.com), is seen by many as the ultimate - it certainly seems to be the most comprehensive. Anytime you return it seems to have an increased figure for the number of web pages it can access. (The current figure, at almost 1.4 billion - yes, you read that right - is by far the largest of any engine.) It also has the least cluttered homepage. In fact, it is almost Zen-like in its simplicity. It has a regular search, which reveals hundreds, thousands or even millions of possibilities like any other engine, and an "I feel lucky" search which links you directly to just one site.

Using the same test phrase, "Irish Universities," as last month, led to almost 70,000 links in the normal search. Using it on the "I feel lucky" search led to, well, Edinburgh's Herriot-Watt University. You takes your chances . . .

Ask Jeeves (www.ask.co.uk) is interesting in that it presents itself as a butler, and you do your search by asking him a question. Depending on how much time you have, this can either be very thorough, or very, very annoying.

Using the sample search here led to it offering to answer further questions such as: Where can I find academic information on colleges or universities in Ireland? Where can I learn about alcohol issues at university? How can I learn about compiling a CV upon leaving higher education? All of this comes before it offers further adjuncts from its sister site in the US. Sometimes you feel like shouting: "Just answer the question, will you?"

The great detail it offers is exactly what some people require, but others, me for instance, just don't have the patience.

Ask Jeeves for Kids (www.ajkids.com) is, as you would expect, a far simpler engine and more satisfying to use. The sample search is not appropriate here, so I asked it: "How can I find Santa on the web?" It offered that "Jeeves knows these answers: What is the history of Santa Claus? Where is Santa Claus right now? Who was the real St Nicholas? Where exactly does Santa live?"

From the first I gleaned that "The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, brought by settlers to New York in the 17th century." A lovely search for parents and teachers to use with children.

Direct Hit (www.directhit.com) is yet another spin-off from the Ask Jeeves company. It works in a different way in that it ranks results by popularity through the analysis of the activity of millions of previous Internet searchers. This allows it to offer the most relevant links to the user.

Using the sample search leads to easy-to-read, and understand, links. It also, very interestingly, offers "related searches" based on what others have looked for. For this search it offers such related links as: Irish university application; all Irish universities; and sexual abuse in Irish universities.

Direct Hit's homepage also offers a very handy feature called WebWatch, which allows you to check out the most popular websites for frequently searched terms such as Pokemon, Napster and MP3.

The Lycos homepage (www.lycos.co.uk) is very similar in design to that of Yahoo. It has lists of areas that it covers to help narrow the search, though these are not as detailed as Yahoo's. It works with business so that, for instance, its sports coverage comes from sports.com, Loot magazine provides its classifieds ads and Thomson Directories provides its business search.

Using the sample search leads to 5,771 links, but listing them in order of relevance is not something Lycos does. Therefore, its first link here is to a web page on an Irish women's mountain running team trial. Somehow, I don't think this is what most people would be looking for it they put the phrase "Irish universities" into a search engine.