A search engine is a tool used to find information based on a given input. Web search engines are an example where you can enter a word or phrase and find web pages that match those terms.
How Google and Search Engines Work
Not all web search engines work the same way, but most are crawler-based, meaning they actively search the web for pages to add to their index. The search engine is what you use to quickly look up information from the index and display the results on the page.
Search engines are the primary method of surfing the web, and there are many types that are built to find specific information. Within each search engine, there are often advanced search options that are used to better target your search and help you find what you are looking for.
Search engines automatically create website listings using software, often called spiders or spiderbots, that "crawl" web pages. They follow a site's links to other pages, indexing the information in the process.
