Question:
How does a search engine let you search for information on the web?

Answer:
There are two different kinds of search engines – one is a crawler-based search engine (spider), and the other type is a human-driven directory – and they both gather and create their listings in extremely different ways.

Human Driven Directories (e.g. Open Directory) uses humans to build their listings.  One submits a short description for a website to the directory or the directory has editors that write a description for sites they review.

Crawler Search Engines (e.g. Google) uses spiders (automated software program that “spiders” the content of a website).  The spiders go to a web page, read the content there, and follow any links it comes across along the way until it reaches a dead end.  The spiders then index the information it gathers in a giant catalog.  Spiders will revisit a site every month or two and update any changes that occur on that site.

The final aspect of how the search engines work is the search engine software program goes through the millions of web pages recorded in the index and finds a match to a search ranking them in an order based on what that search engine believes to be most relevant.

About the Author
Anna Agnew is an author for The Computer Geek Custom Web Page Design. The Computer Geek is a web design company that prides itself in professional service at a fraction of the cost. The Computer Geek specializes in Custom Web Design, PHP & MySql and Ecommerce.