This paper presents the most important concepts and techniques to use in successfully searching the major World Wide Web search engines and directories, explains the basics of how search engines work, and describes what is included in their indexes. Following an introduction that gives an overview of Web directories and search engines, the first section explains features of search engines, including treatment of single words, truncation or wildcards, case sensitivity, and treatment of multi-word queries and phrases. Major search engines and directories are discussed in the second section, including AltaVista, HotBot, WebCrawler, Excite, Magellan, Ultraseek and Ultrasmart by Infoseek, Lycos, Yahoo!, and Cyberhound. The next section covers mega search or parallel search sites, including: ALL-IN-ONE Search Page, CUSI, search.com, MetaCrawler, SavvySearch, and Infomarket Search. The fourth section describes specialized search engines such as a directory of sources for finding e-mail discussion groups, A Business Compass (ABC), 555-1212.com, and Argos. A table contains specific search capabilities, display features, and other special features of the most commonly used search tools. Relevant Web sites are noted throughout. (Contains 30 references.) (DLS)