I have a .Mac Homepage. When I type in the full address or part of it
(in WEB}, I get a message saying Google cannot find it but that if the
URL is valid, then I should click on: and here the address is
repeated. I then click on this and, lo and behold, my website appears.
Why is this and how do I get directly to my website from Google?

Hello Gyth,

I have a .Mac homepage as well, but the behavior you are describing
appears to affect almost any URL typed into Google that is not
specifically indexed. Let me use a few examples to illustrate how the
Google search page works. These examples were found by entering the
following phrase into Google and making some slight manipulations:
  site:homepage.mac.com +my

Enter the following URL into Google
  http://homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/
to get a short page with the following items:
-----
The google entry for the specific URL (in this case
http://homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/).

Google can show you the following information for this URL:

Show Google's cache of homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/ 
Find web pages that are similar to homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/ 
Find web pages that link to homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/ 
Find web pages that contain the term
"homepage.mac.com/sirhexadecimal/"
-----
So, that is a page that is indexed by Google hosted as a .Mac home
page. I believe that is way Google works for all indexed pages.

Here is another example:
  http://homepage.mac.com/heli1/
which gets the following data listed:
-----
Sorry, no information is available for the URL homepage.mac.com/heli1/
If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the
following link: homepage.mac.com/heli1/
Find web pages that contain the term "homepage.mac.com/heli1/"
-----
Like your page, Google has "no information" for this page yet it
exists. If you click on the first link - you go directly to that page.

This occurs, even though the page
  http://homepage.mac.com/heli1/iblog/
is indexed by Google. If you click on the latter link (pages
containing the phrase...) - you will find about 400 references to
pages in this .Mac area (but none directly to the "home page").

If this is not the behavior you are seeing - please make a request for
clarification.

If this is the behavior you are seeing, it may be best for me to also
answer the question:
  How do I get my home page indexed on Google?
which would bring your home page up as an indexed item (instead of the
"no information" message).

Information on how to do that is at:
  ://www.google.com/addurl.html
which allows you to enter your home page URL for indexing by Google.
Note that the addition is not immediate and Google does not guarantee
a specific time frame to add your site (unless you pay for an
advertisement). If there is content you don't want indexed or change
your mind later, see:
  ://www.google.com/remove.html
for instructions on how to prevent your content from being added to
Google or to remove your content from Google. Note that it may take a
few weeks for your content to disappear if you don't want it indexed.

  --Maniac

A very helpful answer to an old fogey who doesn't understand web
sites, search engines etc. By looking at the web pages suggested, I
was able to understand better (well, a bit!) how Google works. Also,
the answer told me how I can get my .mac home page into the Google
database, and that in large part is what I wanted to know.

What is the URL?