COM 125 Week 2: Search Engines - Finding What You Need

A search engine is an information retrievel system designed to help find information stored on a computer system, such as on the World Wide Web, inside a corporate or proprietary network, or in a personal computer.(Wikipedia, 2007)

So how does a search engine work? When one visits popular sites like Yahoo, MSN and Google, there will be a textbox along with a button that says, 'search' located somewhere in the page. Some sites operate wholly as search engines while others add one in to aid Internet surfers with the ease of finding information in the comfort of being in their website. It is kind of like killing two birds with one stone.

In the textbox, users can type any word or phrase that corresponds to the subject they are looking for. For example, when I type the words, 'search engine' in any search engine (pun intended), there will be a list of search engines such as Alta Vista, MSN Search and popular ones like Yahoo! and Google. One word to sum up the whole idea of search engines is 'links'. Why 'links'? Mainly because the whole concept of search engines is the interconnectedness of websites. It is the links that greet us when we type something to be searched. Basically, other websites that provides some kind of relation to the text that was typed in the search engine.

Search engines plays a pivotal role in the advent of Internet. What began as a way of organizing the Internet, has transformed into a fast and efficient method of obtaining information. According to Search Marketing Info (2004), the first search engine created was Archie, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. The original intent of the name was "archives," but it was shortened to Archie. The program downloaded the directory listings of all the files that can be found on public anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, creating a searchable database of filename.

As the web continues to grow, search engines were created as a form of trackback. Essentially, search engines allows people to locate things at a click of the mouse. The first full-text web search engine was Webcrawler in 1990. Previously, only web page titles were searched. Rather limited for the average Internet user in this current technological era. Where everything is almost expected to be 'found' at an instant. When I use the word 'found', I am referring to the idea that when we log on to the Internet we seek for information. It is often the need to know something or look for something that drives us to use a search engine. Thus, when we insert a title in the search engine, we expect a list of links that will lead us to a myriad of websites related to the subject in question.

Today, Google has transformed the way we use the search engine. While previous search engines have helped paved the way we find information from the Internet, Google is at the tip of everyone's fingers when it comes to search engines.

Google circa 1998

Google circa 2007

It is apparent that Google is leading the pack when it comes to search engines. It rose to prominence around 2001. Many changes were done to the Google interface judging by the two pictures attached above.

According to SEO Logic® (Search Engine Optimization and Placement Services), “Google is by far the most used search engine today”. In addition, research by SEO Logic® stated that Google does far more than 200 million (>200,000,000) searches every day through Google.com.

I even worked on this particular assignment with the help of Google! No surprises there. Considering I had to find external sources to cite from. Conveniently, I went straight away to Google.com to find information apart from the ones that I was suppose to read for class.

It is amazing how much information I managed to gather in the span of a few hours. Imagine the absence of Internet in this case. Where previously, students engage the help of library books to dig up for data. It would be time-consuming and rather infuriating to go through dozens of books. Internet searches are ideal for quick and recent information-gathering purposes. A couple of clicks and I am transferred from one page to another. I personally feel that search engines encapsulates the whole notion of seeking information through the web. “Google It”, as they say.

References

Google. (2006, December 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

History of the Internet. (2006, December 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=70771572

Search Engine. (2007, January 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine

SEO Logic – Search Engine Optimization & Placement Services. (n.d) Which is the most used search engine? Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://www.seologic.com/faq/most-popular-search.php

Wall, A. (22 January 2007). History of Search Engines: From 1945 to Google 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://www.search-marketing.info/search-engine-history/#google