Private companies employ professionals to help them find and use information. These professionals are called librarians. The Internet is a disorganized place. Unlike the print publishing world, where there is a finite number of publishers who distribute their books and magazines through established channels, the Internet allows anyone to become a provider of information. This has many implications for users of information, not the least of which is finding what's out there.
Search engines are the antidote to the Web's disorganization.
As searchable databases of web sites, they can quickly generate a list of sites that might or might not be of use. With the enormous and steady growth of the web, mastery of search engines can help you find what you need when you need it. Search engines are not all alike. A fiercely competitive marketplace for search engines means constant new innovations that make searches easier and that encourage you to spend more time at the search engine site being exposed to advertising. As a result, each search engine has it's own database of Web sites, its own features, and it's own rules for searching.