available online.

Last week I suggested some free software that budding site builders could use to make their place on the Internet more current, and more interactive.

This column will show you how to put a search engine, a survey form, and a hit counter on your site.

Now that you've added all that content it is time to put up a search engine that will help your visitors find what they've come to your site to look for.

Adding a search engine, if you need it, is not a difficult task.

If your site has fewer than 500 pages, you can put the Atomz search engine on your site for free. In return Atomz adds a small logo just above the search results. You simply sign in to the Atomz site (www.atomz.com) plug in your preferences and get the HTML code to add to your Internet page.

You can add both a simple search and an advanced search engine to your site.

While Atomz doesn't allow visitors to search the whole Internet, just your site, there's a lot going for this free tool. Users also get free daily reports on what visitors are searching for on the site. This is a good clue on how to tweak the site to produce the content they want.

Users can also change the way the search page and the search results page look. When using Atomz remember to set a schedule for when your site gets indexed. Atomz will do this automatically on the day and time you set it to search your site for new pages and words.

You'll be in good company with Atomz as Wired Magazine uses it for its search engine on WebMonkey, the place to learn all about Internet tools and design.

Some of the other free search engines include FreeFind (http://www.freefind.com), IntraSearch (http://intra.whatuseek.com), PicoSearch (http://www.picosearch.com), SearchButton (http://www.searchbutton.com), and FusionBot (http://www.fusionbot.com).

These providers all provide a free service for sites with 1,000 to 10,000 pages in exchange for adding advertising to the search results. FreeFind is a great competitor to Atomz. The free version will index and search up to 3,000 pages, compared to Atomz's 500 page limit. You also have more flexibility in scheduling when your site gets indexed.

For the lazy at heart (that's me!) FreeFind will automatically create a site map and a "what's new'' list so you don't have to do it yourself. You also can allow visitors to search the entire web rather than just your site. Now that's flexibility.

Forms: If you want to get feedback from your visitors, or find out answers to specific questions try Freedback (http://www.freedback.com). The site allows you to set up your forms and add in specific questions before generating the coding that you then place on your Internet site. You can also set up a free responder that will automatically generate an e-mail with information to your visitors on request.

Hit counter: Now that you've got floods of people visiting you'll want to boast about how many `hits' or visitors saw your site. There are quite a few free hit counters out there that generate a wide range of statistics about your visitors.

TheCounter.com is particularly good and generates daily in-depth traffic reports. You can hide the hit counter from view if you have five people visit, or you can show it to proclaim to the world that you had a horde through the gates.

TheCounter will track number of visitors (unique and total), domain names, referrers, browser popularity, screen resolution, operating system, and more information than you'll need for a personal site. The Counter (www.thecounter.com) doesn't add any advertising or logo to your home page.

Netscape Hitometer (http://hitometer.netscape.com) is another free counter.

However Hitometer only generates basic statistics. I use Hitometer on my personal site but I'm going to switch over to TheCounter, when I have time. We use TheCounter at OffshoreOn.com, and it works great.

There are other free services you can use to add other functions to your site, including password protection (Weballey PassMake), updated jokes (a-Joke-a-Day), and an `e-mail to a friend' function (Referral Blast). These last three services can be found at Webware (http://www.webware.com).

Meanwhile Bravenet (http://www.bravenet.com) gives you tools such as scrolling stock tickers, updated financial charts, chat rooms, and other freebies.

Bravenet is attempting to become the free portal for Web builders, both for personal and business sites.

Next week: How to get your pages on to the server, services that check your links, and search engine submission, and other goodies.

The previous columns about creating your own Internet pages using free software tools can be read at http://www.ahmedelamin.com. Now hit me! Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. You can contact Ahmed at editor yoffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.