A search engine is a tool used to search for information on the Internet. The results are usually presented in list form. The information generally consists of web pages, images, information, and other files. Search engines generally operate using algorithmic computations. However they are sometimes a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

Search engines store information about individual web sites retrieved by web crawlers. The contents of each page are analyzed to determine how it should be indexed within the search engine. When users do a search the engine examines its index and provides a list of best-matching pages according to the criteria.

Back to Frequently Asked Questions