Search Engines

internet · technology · information

Instant answer machines. Search engines use special computer programs called bots to explore and catalog billions of web pages. When you type a question, the search engine searches through all that information in less than a second and shows you the most helpful results.

How it works. Search engines find pages by following links from website to website, reading what's on each page, and remembering all that information. Then they rank the pages by what they think will be most useful to you based on your exact words.

Many ways to search. You can search from a web browser on a computer or use an app on your phone. You can even narrow your search to just images, videos, news articles, or maps if you want something specific.

Targeted searching. Modern search engines let you filter your results in clever ways, like searching only for recent articles, or pictures from a specific size, or videos from a certain length. This helps you find exactly what you need instead of scrolling through thousands of results.