Search Engines

The internet contains a vast collection of information, which is spread out in every part of the world on remote web servers. The problem in locating the correct information on the internet led to the creation of search technology, known as the internet search engine. A search engine can provide links to relevant information based on your requirement or query. Examples of popular internet search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos and Ask Jeeves. In order to understand the terminology and techniques to position your website pages for higher ranking in search engines, the knowlege of the basic functioning of a search engine is essential.

A search engine is a computer software, that is continually modified to avail of the lastest technologies in order to provide improved search results. Each search engine does the same functions of collecting, organizing, indexing and serving results in its own unique ways, thus employing various algorithms and techniques, which are their trade secrets.

In short, the functions of a search engine can be categorized into the following:

Crawling the internet for web content.
Indexing the web content.
Storing the website contents.
Search algorithms and results.