Thinking of Buying a Website? An Overview of Search Engines
Search engines are used all over the world, everyday, by millions of people. These devices are websites that collect and compile data from the internet so that other web pages, links, and different information can be found more easily. There are an unfathomable number of search engines on the internet. Some popular ones include Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, Infoseek, Lycos, Alta Vista, Excite, MSN Search and Hotbot. With so many websites to choose from, it makes it hard to decide which search engine is the best fit for your task at hand.
Each search engine gathers their listings in fundamentally two different ways. One system uses a crawler-based search engine that creates their listings automatically. In order to operate, the crawler-based search engine consists of three major elements; spider, index, and search engine software. The first element, spider, which is also called the crawler, is used to visit the web page, read it, and then follow the links to other pages within the site. When someone refers to a site as being “spidered” or “crawled”, this is what that means. In case of change in a web site, the spider returns frequently to look for these changes that may have occurred. The second part of the search engine is known as the index, which is basically a storage unit containing a copy of every web page that the spider had found. When the webpage ever changes, the index will be updated with the new information that had been found. In some cases when a website had made changes, the index may not store the new changes as fast as the spider did. In this case, until the information is updated, this web site is unable to access those searching with the search engine. The third part of this search engine is the search engine software. This is a program that is designed to sort through the millions of pages that are recorded into the index. While sorting, it is made to find matches to a search and rank them accordingly from most relevant to least. This allows the user to find their information more easily, and knows which ones are more important and then will be less time consuming.
Human-Powered Directories is another search engine method that is used. This type of search engine plays the role of an open directory. This engine waits for a short description that is submitted to the directory, and then is further researched for the user. It looks for information that matches only the description that was submitted, and then all sites found are displayed. The changing of the webpage has takes no effect, mainly because the improvement of a listing from a search engine has nothing to do with improvement from a directory. The main advantage with human-powered directories is that the user is more likely to get a review from a good site with good content and it being for free, rather than reviewing a poor or weak site.
Each search engine is uniquely different, but in some ways many are the same. Many of which, have software that searches the internet for web pages relating to a specific query. Alta Vista and Excite are two examples of common search engines which index and search the whole web. Yahoo!, WebCrawler, and Lycos also search the internet for websites containing specified key words or phrases that will help you find information on your desired topic.
There is a great deal of competition between search engines, mainly due to the different methods used. Depending on the search engine that is being used, they are all tuned differently creating controversy on which is better for which ever topic. With one search engine, it may retrieve different information than another search engine. The production and result of each search engine is almost guaranteed to be different. Search engines are mainly programs that enable you to search the internet using keywords or phrases. These programs are used world wide and have enhanced the use of internet dramatically. They were created mainly to make surfing the web easier for every user and that is exactly what is does. The future of the internet is only seen as becoming stronger and better.
When researching to find out which search engine is ranked to be the best, it was clear to see that there is a lot of competing taking place. According to www.kottke.org, it had listed the top ten search engines, and each of the top ten search engine’s top ten. Google was ranked to be the top search engine, and from my personal opinion, I do agree. Google is known for its hyper-fast searches, consistent relevance, a gigantic catalog, curious features like archived pages, spell check, toolbars, froogle, a phenomenal image search, a banner-free interface, and publishing in nearly 100 different languages. It seems as if no other search engine can even compare when it comes to Google. It is also the single largest, most thorough, and most featured web database available to the public.
Yahoo! is also one of the highest ranking search engines. It compares to Google in many ways such as using an automated-crawling and an imagine search. This ten year industry has grown more and more over the years, constantly strives to earn its users' trust and affection. Lots of money has been put into the Yahoo.com development, which helps maintain its status as cutting edge.
Alta Vista is a very popular search engine that is used by a variety of people. This specific search engine is great on looking up foreign cultures and their languages. Personally, I’ve used Alta Vista many times to help me find information for one of my languages, and it helped me tremendously.
Lycos has proven to be very popular among people working for the government or dealing with law. It specializes in finding case studies and intricate details within law documents. A majority of these websites contain the ending .gov. It also is great for finding information on people’s background.
Fundamentally, Dogpile consists of the top search engines with in the search. It gives you Google's results, then Yahoo’s, and so on. Personally, I feel as if Dogpile is one of the best simply because it gives you an immeasurable amount of results and it’s all right there on one site. Unlike other search engines, Dogpile is much more convenient for users and is very well developed.
Without using a computer, I developed my own project. I went around asking 25 people, which search engine they prefer to use. To me, the results weren’t shocking. Many people never even hear of search engines such as, Lycos, Alta Vista, and Info Seek. Out of the 25 people I asked, 14 of them said the always use Google. Dogpile came in second, with 8 people saying they love using this specific search engine do to the reason that I stated above. The leftover 3 people said they use a variety of search engines, depending on what they are researching.
Search engines today are used all around the world, by billions of people. With technology improving and the advances that are being made day by day, search engines, along with many other materials, will only continue to improve. The future holds a lot for the people, and computers are doing wonders in our lifetime. Search Engines are the first place computer users start in order to find a specific topic they are looking for, and the information that is found by these search engines will only develop more and amplify our knowledge.
Works Cited
Search Engine Promotion Solutions. Retrieved November 22nd, 2004, from http://www.registereverywhere.com/engines1.php?a
Search Engines on the Web. Retrieved November 22nd, 2004, from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&oi=defmore&q=define:Search+Engines
The Top 10 Search Engines According to the Top 10 Search Engines. Retrieved November 28th, 2004, from http://www.kottke.org/02/06/top-ten-search-engines