Search engine facts for kids

A search engine is a special website that helps you find information on the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a huge part of the Internet. Think of it like a super-smart librarian for the entire internet! When you type in what you're looking for, the search engine quickly scans through millions of web pages to find the best matches. It then shows you a list of results, usually putting the most helpful ones at the top.

The most popular search engines today are Google Search and Bing. There are also older ones like Yahoo! Search and Ask.com. Some search engines are even made for special purposes, like Ecosia, which helps plant trees, or Tenor, which is great for finding pictures.

To use a search engine, you just type a word or a few words (called keywords) into the search box. Then, you usually click a button to start the search. The search engine then looks through its massive database of websites to find pages that match your keywords.

After you search, you'll see a list of results on a page called the search engine results page (SERP). This list shows you web pages that are related to what you typed. Search engines work hard to remove "spam" or unhelpful pages so you get the best information. You can then click on any link to visit that web page.

Search engines are very advanced. They use special computer programs to sort web pages. The most popular or highest-quality pages usually appear near the top of your results. This helps you find what you need quickly and easily. Using more specific words or different keywords can help you get even better results!

Some search services also offer other things like news or games, not just search. For example, Yahoo! has a popular portal with lots of features, while Google keeps its front page simple. Most search services are free to use because they are supported by advertisements.

How Search Engines Work

Search engines do three main things to help you find information: crawling, indexing, and ranking.

Crawling the Web

Search engines use special computer programs called 'crawlers' or 'bots' to explore the internet. These bots are like tiny explorers that visit web pages, videos, images, and other online content. They look for new content or changes to existing content. As they explore, they record information about what they find, including all the links on each page. All this collected information is then stored in a huge URL database. This database is what helps generate your search results.

Indexing Information

After the bots crawl content, it gets 'indexed' in the search engine's database. Think of indexing like organizing a giant library. If a book isn't in the library's index, it's hard to find! Similarly, if online content hasn't been crawled and indexed, it probably won't show up in search results, even if it's very relevant.

During indexing, the search engine looks at every word on the crawled pages. It also notes where these words are located on the page. The search engine then compares this content to other similar content and decides how to organize it within its massive index. This helps it quickly find relevant pages when someone searches.

Ranking Search Results

Ranking is how search engines decide the order of the results you see. When you search for something, the search engine uses complex computer programs called algorithms to figure out the best answers. It then lists what it thinks are the most helpful pages at the top of your search results.

For example, if you search for "19th-century British landscape painters," Google and other search engines will look at their index, find pages about that topic, and then rank them. The pages that are most relevant and helpful will appear highest in the list. Website owners often use something called search engine optimization (SEO) to help their pages get a higher rank.

History of Search Engines

The idea of searching for information online has been around for a long time. Early search tools started appearing in the early 1990s.

• 1993: Some of the very first search tools included W3Catalog and ALIWEB.
• 1994: More well-known names started to appear, like WebCrawler and Lycos.
• 1995: Yahoo! Search became popular, and other engines like Excite and AltaVista also launched.
• 1998: A very important year! This is when Google first appeared, which would later become the most used search engine in the world. MSN Search (now Bing) also started around this time.
• 2000s and Beyond: Many new search engines have been created over the years, including Baidu (popular in China), DuckDuckGo (known for privacy), and Ecosia (which focuses on environmental causes). Newer ones like Brave Search and You.com continue to innovate.

See also

In Spanish: Motor de búsqueda para niños