How Does A Search Engine Work?

Chances are, you use a search engine almost daily, if not every day. Everytime you go to Google or Yahoo, or any other sort of search engine, a simple but important process occurs that brings up the search results. Understanding the process of how a search engine works is not necessary to using a search engine; however, it is a very interesting process to understand and explore. Furthermore, the process relies on interesting imagery involving spiders crawling on the web.

Basic Format

The most simple way to describe how a search engine works is to just break the steps down, one by one, so that individuals can get a better concept of what is really involved in the work of a search engine:

• Web crawling: Web spiders go into various websites and webpages, and search all of the pages or links for terms.
• Indexing: The important key factors are stored in an index.
• Searching: Users insert elements (called keywords) into the search engine "search box" feature, and the tool goes to work bringing up the most relevant options matching the keywords.

Web search engines store a great deal of information about the web pages they visit. They are also known as web spiders, which is quite an accurate term! Always remember that the spider likes to crawl on a web.

These web spiders go to the web page and follow every link on the site. The data from the web page or website is then indexed. The words are then stored for later usage, in a process called indexing. The words that are chosen to be stored are referred to as meta tags.

For example, the web spider might find words such as "sneakers," "laces," and "boots" from a website dedicated to shoes. Then the web spider/crawler will store the information for the search engine. These words are the meta tags. Then if someone types one of those words into the search engine, those particular websites with the term will pop up. Websites are also ordered in terms of relevance.

Considerations About Search Engines

There are a few additional points that are helpful to know and remember when using a search engine.

• Users should be aware that no known search engines allow websites and webpages to be searched by their date. That does not mean that Google cannot be searched for dates; however, dates are not indexed in the same way as other bits of information.
• Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT can be used to further a search.
• Remember, that search engines look for the terms exactly as you type them in. They are simply a mechanical process, and they cannot imagine what you are thinking.
• There are often advanced search features on search engines. For example, searches can be limited to .org or .edu. That would be rather appropriate for a student looking for research information that is regarded as educational or legitimate.

As a user, it is not necessary to understand what is occuring during the search engine process. The process makes sense, and does not involve a lot of technical jargon that obscures what is happening.