search engine

Home > ... > Science and Technology > Computers and Electrical Engineering > Computers and Computing > ...

search engine

A Dictionary of Computing | 2004 | | © A Dictionary of Computing 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

search engine A program that when initiated by a search command from a user interface examines a body of data for items satisfying the search criteria and returns the items or their locations to the interface. The data could be, say, a literary database or information about very large numbers of World Wide Web sites. Google, Alta Vista, and Yahoo are examples of Web search engines.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O11-searchengine" title="Facts and information about search engine">search engine</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

JOHN DAINTITH. "search engine." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN DAINTITH. "search engine." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-searchengine.html

JOHN DAINTITH. "search engine." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-searchengine.html

Learn more about citation styles

search engine

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | © The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

search en·gine • n. Comput. a program for the retrieval of data from a database or network, esp. the Internet.

Hide all research tools
Print this article Print all entries for this topic Cite this article Link to this article
Link to this article

CloseClose

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O999-searchengine" title="Facts and information about search engine">search engine</a>

Add this article to Del.icio.usBookmark this article on DiigoShare this article on FacebookSubmit this article to RedditGive this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon
Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"search engine." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"search engine." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (December 26, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-searchengine.html

"search engine." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved December 26, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-searchengine.html

Learn more about citation styles

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

META SEARCH ENGINES.
Magazine article from: Online; 5/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...search engine searches. By using a meta search engine to search several engines at once and...how many search engines the meta engine searches sounds like...choosing a meta search engine, look for...displays the engines it ...
Search Engines: Do They Answer Your Questions?(Brief Article)
Newspaper article from: The Information Advisor; 10/1/2000; 700+ words ; ...reported most often about search engines. What aspect of search engines is being discussed, and what...Announcements of New Search Engines These articles announce or describe some specific new search engine. Some of the specific names...
Switching your search engines.(on the net)
Magazine article from: Online; 5/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...needs, a simple search at any Web search...as that search engine answers all queries...between the search engines' underlying databases...standard for search engines first introduced...quickly transfer searches from one database...under "Transfer Search ...
Search engines
Magazine article from: Management Services; 8/1/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...directory of web sites. Search engines index the words in documents...need to choose the right search engine for a particular job because...than others for different searches. There are thousands of search engines to choose from, a list can...
Using search engines and web directories.
Magazine article from: Journal of School Health; 10/1/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...or updates the search engine database. Each engine searches a different database...garnered by each search engine even when exact...searching varies. Most search engines index sites either...Keyword indexing searches for significant...
Search engines sort out the tangled Web.(Family Times)(`Webwise')
Newspaper article from: The Washington Times; 7/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...name (http://www.(search engine name).com). Each of these search engines provides different features...yellow pages to local area site searches, and each will produce a different response to an identical search request. For the purpose...category or hierarchical search ...
Search engines: Your Internet dashboard
Magazine article from: Credit Union Management; 7/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...That's where the "search engine" comes in. Search engines are Web sites that...submitted to some engines and not others...likely settle on one engine that seems to consistently...get to the various search engines by typing in their...
Using search engines effectively
Magazine article from: Beyond Numbers; 4/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...material-too often a search will yield pages and...the most out of search engines, some of which are...t actually a search engine, just a list of links...upper case: Some search engines are case sensitive, which means that if your search term is all in upper...case. ...
Search engines are improving--but they still can't find everything. (Info Tech).
Magazine article from: Teacher Librarian; 6/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...mission of his Internet search organization was...supported some 150 million searches a day; and it had...sources. Its Catalog Search, still in development...be AOL's search engine. This meant that...four most used search engines" (Hane, 2003...Google and other search ...
Search Engines.
Magazine article from: Teacher Librarian; 4/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...at least one Internet search engine from time to time...we have these search engines? At one level, it...don't come from the search engine, but rather...attracted by the search engine. At first glance...However, a search engine will usually be ...

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

For students and teachers!

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Current search engine News:

Twitter Ekes a Profit for 2009

(12/21/2009 4:30:03 PM)

Scammers Target 'Google Doodles'

(12/16/2009 1:09:05 PM)

Microsoft Searches for Cause of Bing Outage

(12/4/2009 5:55:00 PM)

Microsoft's Bing Maps May Beat Google

(12/3/2009 7:47:00 PM)

One Non-Profit Should Index the Internet

(11/25/2009 9:25:02 PM)