Search Engines

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the number of webpages was quite limited, but as the number of webpages grew exponentially, there was a need for a mechanism that allowed users to find webpages that interest them. Search engines, online tools that are able to search for information on the World Wide Web, were introduced in order to meet this need. The search is based on specified keywords entered by a user and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Search results are produced in a line of results called search engine results pages.

This entry provides an overview of search engines, including their historical origins and development, components of search engines, the role of their respective algorithms, and ...