Search engine usage can be quite confusing even for the initiate. Casual surfers can usually get by with knowing a few search sites and some basics on entering keywords, but if you're hunting for more obscure data, you're trying to refine searches to narrow down the yea zillion useless results you always seem to get, or if you're a Webmaster trying to get your site listed on the top of the various search engines' listings, you should find out more about how the search engines work. Start by checking some of the sites below.

All Search Engines (a listing of pretty much every search engine and directory on the Internet)
www.allsearchengines.com

Beaucoup
www.beaucoup.com/

Berkeley Internet Guide
www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/

Berkeley MetaSearch Guide
library.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html

The Clever Project (IBM-sponsored investigation into the future of search engine technology)
www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/k53/clever.html

Helpful Guide to Search Engines
www.monash.com/spidap.html

How To Choose a Search Engine or Directory (very useful, with lots of links to specific sites)
library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html

Invisible Web (lots of info on finding "hidden" Web sites)
www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

Lycos Searchable Databases (connections to lots of online databases that don't show up in ordinary searches)
dir.lycos.com/reference/searchable_databases/

ResearchBuzz
www.researchbuzz.com/

Search Engine Forum (ask your questions here)
www.searchengineforum.com/

Search Engine Showdown
searchengineshowdown.com/

Search Engine Watch
www.searchenginewatch.com/

Search Engines Worldwide (lists nearly 3200 search engines from 211 countries, with lots of info to go with the links)
home.inter.net/takakuwa/search/search.html

SearchAbility (directory of search engine directories, ahem)
www.searchability.com/