Search Engine
A search engine is a web application used to find information on the World Wide Web.
Search engines are the primary tool used to find information on the web.
Search engines work by creating an extensive database of website contents. They then allow users to search, or query, that database by entering terms, or keywords. The search engine then compares the search terms to the database contents and locates matches to those terms. Finally, the search engine ranks the results by relevance and presents the results to the user who selects the results that appear to provide the information that is being sought.
Also See: Searching the Web
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the first search engine?
The first tool used to search content on the Internet was called Archie. It debuted in 1990, and was used to search for FTP files using Telnet, a precursor to the World Wide Web.
What are the most popular search engines in the world?
The five top search engines command more than 98% of all search engine traffic. Google leads the pack with nearly 70% of the market, Bing comes in at a distant second with around 12% of the market, Yahoo! in third sits just under 10%, the Chinese-language search engine Baidu comes in fourth with around 7%, and AOL lands fifth with approximately 1% of the search engine market.
Are there any privacy concerns associated with using a search engine?
Search engines are built on an advertising revenue model. They allow paid search results to appear on the same page as organic search results generated from the search engine's index. Paid search results are normally clearly marked as such, but are still considered intrusive by some web users. In addition, in order to better tailor the paid ads delivered to a web user, search engines track user activity, the terms they search for, the links they click, and the paid ads they respond to. This allows the search engine to better serve advertisers by providing a more effectively targeted audience.
Many web and business professionals argue that this sort of activity is necessary to keep search engines free for users. On the other hand, many users are concerned about the amount of personal information being collected, and prefer to avoid being tracked whenever possible.
What search engine offers the best privacy protection?
There are search engines designed specifically for privacy-minded individuals. DuckDuckGo is one of the most popular and effective anonymous search engines.
How can I make my search results more specific?
There are a few advanced search strategies you can use to improve the relevance of the search results you are seeing. The first is to put search terms in quotations like this: “specific search terms”. Doing so will only generate results that include the search terms exactly as you have typed them. Another strategy is to limit your search to a specific domain. For example, if you wanted to search Learn the Net for pages about search engine optimization you could enter the following search terms: site:learnthenet.com search engine optimization.
To learn more about advanced searches, check out this article.