Web Searching Tips and Techniques
Workshop Main Page
Overview
Directories vs. Search
Engines
Search Engine Components
Features
Searching Strategies
Searching
Alternatives
Access to Search Engines
Website Evaluation
& Citing
Search Engine Components
There are three components to a search engine:
Collection; Database; Search Interface
Collection:
- "Robot", "Spider", or "Worm" wanders, brings back resources,
sorts, indexes, and creates the database.
- Alternately, webmasters can contact search engine
owners/operators to add their sites to the database.
Database:
- When using a search engine, you are actually searching the
database, not "the Internet".
Search Interface:
- This component is the interface between the end-user and the
database.
- Some engines allow for complex strategy development with
Boolean operators, phrase and proximity searching, and nesting. Others are
simple keyword searches.
- Some megatools (meta-search engines) search multiple engine
databases simultaneously with a single interface.
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