How to Search the Web

Searching Newsgroups, Email Lists, and Discussion Forums

Newsgroups, electronic mail lists, and Web discussion forums support discussions among individuals who share an interest in an issue or belong to a particular community. You can read a message sent to a mailing list, sometimes referred to as a listserv, in the same way that you read other email messages. You can read messages posted to newsgroups and Web discussion forums using most Web browsers.

A small number of specialized search sites allow you to search these discussion venues. Catalist (http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html) and Tile.net (http://tile.net/lists/) allow you to seach for email lists. Forum Zilla (http://www.forumzilla.com) supports searches of Web discussion forums. Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) allows you to search for newsgroups and newsgroup posts. And Newzbot (http://www.newzbot.com) allows you to search for newsgroups.

In this demonstration, we'll conduct a search for newsgroup messages using Google Groups. To begin this demonstration, click on the Continue button.