History of the Internet Part 7: Search Engines
Written by Eric Girouard for my internet research class at John Abbott College

· What is a Search engine? · How does a Search Engine work? · Links ·

The Search Engine Watch web site defines a search engine as the following:
The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.

Crawler-Based Search Engines
Crawler-based search engines, such as HotBot, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found. If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Human-Powered Directories
A human-powered directory, such as Yahoo, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review.

Here are a few of my favorite search engines or directories:

Google   Altavista   Northernlight   Yahoo


Advanced Research Project Agency  Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire  Email  Configuring your Email Software  Search Engines  The Information Superhighway  Hypertext and Xanadu  The Transatlantic Link

Note: This site is intended for in-class HTML demonstration purposes only.