  We carry out a comparative study on the problem for a walker searching on
several typical complex networks. The search efficiency is evaluated for
various strategies. Having no knowledge of the global properties of the
underlying networks and the optimal path between any two given nodes, it is
found that the best search strategy is the self-avoid random walk. The
preferentially self-avoid random walk does not help in improving the search
efficiency further. In return, topological information of the underlying
networks may be drawn by comparing the results of the different search
strategies.
