On the Internet, on various sites, the user is offered a large amount of different information. Search engines have been created to obtain the necessary information, search for answers to questions. Hearing this phrase, many people think of Google, Yandex. However, there are many more search engines on the Internet.
What is a search engine
A search engine is considered to be software that consists of a database of documents. Users are provided with a special interface that allows them to enter the necessary queries and receive links with relevant information. Documents that most closely match what a particular person is looking for are always at the top of the search results.
Search results, which are generated in accordance with the entered query, usually contain different types of results. It may contain web pages, video and audio files, pictures, pdf files, specific products (if the search is carried out in an online store).
Classification of search engines
Existing search engines are classified into several types. First of all, it is worth mentioning traditional search engines. For such search engines, the principles of work are focused on finding information on a huge number of existing sites. Search engines are still available on separate Internet resources:
- in online stores (to search for the right products);
- on forums and blogs (to search for posts);
- on information sites (to search for articles on the desired topic or news), etc.
Search engines are also subdivided based on geographic features. In this classification, there are 3 groups of search engines:
- Global. The search is conducted all over the world. The leader in this group is the Google search engine. Previously, there were search engines such as Inktomi, AltaVista, etc.
- Regional. The search is carried out by country or group of countries, which are united by one language. Regional search engines are widespread. Their example in Russia is Yandex, Rambler.
- Local. The search is conducted in a specific city. An example of such a search engine is Tomsk.ru.
Components of search engines
In any search engine, there are 3 constituent elements that determine the principles of the search engine:
- robot (indexer, spider, crawler);
- database;
- request handler.
Robot is a special program whose purpose is to form a database. The database stores and sortsall information collected. The request handler, also called the client, works with user requests. It has access to the database. The client is not always located on the same computer. The request handler can be spread over several physically unrelated electronic computers.
Principles of search engines
All existing systems operate on the same principle. Consider, for example, the functioning of traditional search engines designed for the Internet. The functioning of the robot is similar to the actions of a normal user. This program periodically bypasses all sites, adds new pages and Internet resources to the database. This process is called indexing.
When a user on the Internet enters a certain query into the search box, the client starts working. The program accesses the existing database and generates results based on keywords. The search engine provides links to the user in a certain sequence. They are sorted as they match the query, i.e. relevance is taken into account.
Every search engine has its own way of determining relevance. If the user sends a specific request to different systems, then he will receive not exactly the same results. The algorithm for determining relevance is kept secret.
Relevance details
In simple words, relevance is the correspondence of the word or combination of words entered in the searchspecific links in the SERP. Several nuances affect the position of documents in the list:
- Presence of search words in documents. This nuance is obvious. If the document contains words from the query entered by the user, then this means that this document matches the search conditions.
- Frequency of occurrence of words. The more often keywords are used in a document, the higher it will be in the SERP list. However, not all so simple. Too much use of words can be a sign of low-quality content for the search engine.
The algorithm for determining relevance is rather complicated. A few years ago, links containing the necessary keywords, but not corresponding to them in content, could get into the search results. At present, the principles of operation of search engines are complicated. Now robots can analyze the entire text. The work of search engines is based on the consideration of a huge number of different factors. Thanks to this, the issue is formed from the highest quality, relevant links.
How to formulate requests correctly
Even at school, we were taught to ask questions correctly. It depends on what kind of answers we will receive. However, this rule does not need to be observed when using search engines. For modern search engines, it does not matter in what number or case a person writes his request. Either way, the output will include the same results.
Search engines don't need a clear wording of the question. The user only needs to choose the right keywords. Consider an example. We need to findLyrics of the song "A Day Without You", which is performed by the famous female pop group "Via-Gra". When contacting a search engine, it is not necessary to name the group, indicate that this is a song. It is enough to write "a day without you text." Keep case, punctuation is not required. These nuances are not taken into account by search engines.
Ranking of search engines in the world
The leading search engine in the world is Google. It was founded in 1998. The system is very popular, which is confirmed by analytical information. About 70% of requests coming to the Internet are handled by Google. The search engine database is huge. More than 60 trillion different documents have been indexed. Google attracts users with a simple interface. The main page has a logo and a search bar. This feature allows us to call Google one of the most minimalistic search engines.
Bing is the second most popular search engine. It appeared in the same year as Google. The creator of this search engine is the well-known international corporation Microsoft. Lower positions in the ranking are occupied by Baidu, Yahoo!, AOL, Excite, Ask.
What is popular in Russia
Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia. This service appeared in 1997. At first, the Russian company CompTek International was engaged in it. A little later, the Yandex company appeared, which continued to engage in a search engine. Search engine foryears of existence has gained immense popularity. It can be searched in several languages - Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Tatar, Kazakh, English, German, French, Turkish.
From statistical data, it is known that Yandex is of interest to more than 50% of Runet users. Over 40% of people prefer Google. Approximately 3% of users opted for Mail.ru, a Russian-language Internet portal.
Protected Search Engines
The usual search engines that are familiar to us are not exactly suitable for children. Young Internet users may accidentally find some materials for adults, information that can harm the psyche. For this reason, special secure search engines have been created. Their databases contain only safe content for children.
An example of one such search engine is Sputnik. Children. This service is quite young. It was created by Rostelecom in 2014. The main page of the search engine is bright and interestingly designed. It presents a wide range of domestic and foreign cartoons for children of different ages. Additionally, the main page contains informative links related to several headings - "Sport", "I want to know everything", "Do it yourself", "Games", "Technology", "School", "Nature".
Another example of a secure children's search engine is Agakids.ru. This is an absolutely safe resource. How does a search engine work? The robot is configured in such a way that it bypasses only those sites that are related to children's topics orare helpful for parents. The database of the search engine includes resources with cartoons, books, educational literature, games, coloring books. Parents, using Agakids.ru, can find for themselves sites on the upbringing and he alth of children.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that search engines are complex systems. They face a lot of problems - the problems of spam, determining the relevance of documents, screening out low-quality content, analyzing documents that do not contain textual information. For this reason, developers are introducing new approaches and algorithms that are trade secrets into the work of Internet search engines.
