A system for identifying and indexing website content, so that people can find information.
Well known examples are Google, Yahoo, Ask, AllTheWeb and Live Search. There are hundreds of others.
All search engines do three things
- index web pages on the World Wide Web
- find web pages in the index that match search requests
- rank the results to display the most relevant or popular pages first
Some search engines accept paid placements, which are displayed at or towards the top of the search results.
Search engines use different methods to index content, including search engine spiders.
To find web pages that match a search term, search engines use keywords, Boolean algebra and proprietary formulas to evaluate content for relevance.
Some search engines specialise in particular types of content, such as scholarly information, news, or blogs. It's worth trying several search engines or a combination of search engines to find specific or unusual information.
