Every location on the Internet is a separate web page. To find the web pages with the information you want, you need to know about the web search engines. When businesses and people put up their web pages, they register them with the web search engines, using key words.

All you have to do is go to the search engines, put in those key words and the search engine will display the appropriate companies' names. There may be 500 or more on the list, but they will have short descriptions so you can try to figure out which ones will be most useful to you. My favorite search engine is Inference.

The first time you search there, you can select a search that lasts a minimum of seven seconds, up to 30 seconds. If you need to search again, you can ask the program to search for up to one minute.

If you click on a reference and then see that it's not what you are looking for, or you want to check another selection, you can click the back arrow on your browser and choose again.

If you have a PC compatible computer running Windows 95, you can download a free utility called WebFerret that will search the search engines for you. Oddly, it doesn't search Inference, but it does search at least 20 other engines including Yahoo, Hotbot, AltaVista, and Infoseek. And WebFerret stays on your screen while it loads the page you've selected into your browser. WebFerret only works with Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

WebFerret can search for exact words or key words. If you want Beanie Babies, you'll want to specify exact words "beanie babies." Otherwise, you'll end up searching for beanies and babies.

But if you actually want to find pages with either beanies or babies, a key word search will do the job. Note, the web page lists both the WebFerret Pro package that costs $30 and the free WebFerret program. The free one is in smaller type and you may have to hunt for it on the page.

If you want to go to search engines directly, you can click on:

You can even search for search engines! The key to a successful search is reading the tips on each site about how that site expects you to enter the search words. Also, sometimes you have to be creative. For example, I wanted a rainbow obsidian egg to show a classroom. I tried to search for "rainbow obsidian."

All I found were expensive new age and jewelry shops. Then I thought about the last time I saw an inexpensive rainbow obsidian egg. It was at a rockhound exhibition. I searched for rockhound and got: Rockhounds Information Page

On that page I found listings of rockhounds who sell their extra finds and was able to buy my rainbow obsidian egg for $15.

If you want a specific shoe, such as Birkenstock sandals, hunt for Birkenstock. Among others, I found a store that features web specials about $20 below store prices: BirksonSale

In general, I've found that my travel agent can get me a better price for airline tickets than I can find on the web using any of the usual services such as Online Airline Guide or Travelocity.

But if you know the lowest price and you want to fly at a time when that price isn't offered, you can visit PriceLine and offer to buy a ticket on a flight at that low fare.

You can't go to PriceLine and say you'll buy a ticket for $1. No airline would accept such an offer. But if their bargain price is $328 for a round trip, but no seats are listed on your desired flight at that price, you can offer to pay the regular low fare and an airline with a vacant seat will probably sell it to you.

PriceLine has a similar deal for buying cars in New York City. If PriceLine finds you a car at your named price, you have to pay them a $25 finders fee and the dealer has to pay them a $75 finders fee.

If after they find you the car you decide not to buy it, you have to pay the dealer a $200 penalty fee. Again, no dealer will accept an extremely low bid.

You can consult the Kelley Blue Book to find out the value of new or used cars, and then make an offer based on the listed values. This can be valuable if you don't like showroom bargaining.

PriceLine suggests you be familiar with the car, know the available features, take your test drive, and research the consumer guides before you place an order with them.

Much of web shopping requires you to know exactly what you want - the manufacturer, the model number, and the features. So, naturally, there are web pages to help you learn what you need to know.

Do Your Homework Before Buying Appliances suggests many good questions to ask before buying a major appliance

You can buy books at discount prices at: Amazon Books or Barnes and Noble

And if you want to read a book that is out of print, you may be able to find a complete copy on the web by searching for the title in one of the search engines. All of the titles in the Great Books list are available unabridged on the web.

You can also find current magazines (some of which are not available in print) on the web. Some examples are: Hot Wired, Omni

if you go browsing around Geocities in the Athens, Broadway and Soho neighborhoods, you'll find plenty of original stories, poetry and artwork. You may even decide to create your own free webpage.

FortuneCity offers a similar community to GeoCities and gives you more web space to design your own website.

Probably the best deal on the web for computer equipment and software, is to buy out-dated versions, or if you are a teacher, the academic versions. You can find either at: Surplus Software

Or, if you really want the latest version of hardware or software, you can go to the web page of the manufacturer and look at the specifications to be sure exactly which model you want

If, for example, you want a digital camera, you can look at print quality samples from each model to help you decide. Then you can go to a discount web store such as:

• Internet Shopping Network
• First Source
• Insight

But remember, if you are buying something heavy, it may be more cost- effective to buy it at your local appliance store, than to pay extra for shipping.

The Internet is a good place to look up hotels and bed and breakfast homes before you travel. Just put the name of your destination city and country and the requested facility, such as bed and breakfast, into your search engine, and you'll soon see what is available. Many bed and breakfast homes and hotels have pictures on the web to help you decide.

You can even find the unexpected and weird items that save you money. For example, I found a pair of vinyl coated laundry magnets that I put in my washing machine, and now I haven't bought soap in years. I'm a trained chemist and I have no idea how or why these things work.

They don't get out stains, but smells and spills, yes. They come with a money-back guarantee, and believe me I was prepared to use it. I've sent back two other so-called laundry balls before trying this one. I'm a real sucker for bargain-hunting. And this time it paid off. Magnetic Laundry Balls

I do suggest paying by credit card on the web. First of all, if you don't receive the product or have to return the product, you can tell the charge card company to cancel the charge. If you paid by check and the dealer has cashed your check, you might never get your money back.

Second, most web dealers have secure servers that scramble your transmission so nobody could detect what you are typing. And, if you think about it, that paper copy of your charge card receipt is a lot easier for somebody to steal than the fleeting moments of electronic transmission of your number.

You can even keep your number in a text file and use cut-and-paste to put it on the web. That way there are no keystrokes for a hacker to log. I use: Info Select as a free form database with my passwords, scraps of information that I've cut from the web, charge card numbers, names, phone numbers, addresses - all the stuff that used to pile up on little scraps of paper.

There are competing products and companies for everything I've mentioned in this article. You might find something you like better. When I searched for "cars purchase" with WebFerret, I found over 500 entries. Happy hunting!