Hello guys

A search engine is a program, available online, which searches for files and documents by using key words, which in turn are mentioned in these documents.

Today, there are hundreds different search engines available online. Each one of them has its own characteristics and capacity. Definitely, the most famous search engine today is Google. Other famous search engines are Bing by Microsoft, Yahoo, which has been on top of preferences for years worldwide and was later succeeded by Google, ASK and many more.

What we have to note here is that every search engine has its own characteristics so the results can differ from another search engine. It would be good to use them selectively and consecutively when we have difficulty in finding some specific information.

The programs we use to display the website content on our computer are called browsers. The most popular browsers are Mozilla firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and more. Most browsers today, make it easier for us, through text frames which they have on an easily spotted place on their screen, to use search engines easily and fast. Attention! Browsers are not search engines themselves. They use search engines. Why do they choose though, specific search engines? It depends on the search engines that each browser works with. The user, can, in most cases, set the browser to use the certain search engine which he prefers.

Alternatively, a search engine can be used by visiting its webpage.

How do search engines work? Why do some websites appear first on the results while some others on the last pages?

It is important to mention here, once again, that every search engine works differently. So, you are more likely to find more information by using different search engines.  

Generally, we can say that search engines display the results of their searches according to:

• The frequency of the key words.
• The number of other web pages which have links to a webpage which includes references of key words. A web page, is considered to be more «important» for the search engines, when other web pages refer to it.
• The «importance» of the web pages which link to the specific web pages that includes the key words. If, for example, a webpage which is considered important by the search engines because it has a lot of references by other web pages, has a link to a webpage which has our key words, then this webpage will rank on top in the search engine results.
• The oldness of the webpage combined with the update frequency. If a webpage is on the web for a long time and is updated frequently, then it will appear on top in the list with the results.

Regardless the search engine we use, we can follow some certain rules to improve the results of our search.

Let’s see the most important ones:

-Choose carefully the search words and place the most important words first.

-Search using synonyms and different words every time. One and only search will never be enough.

-Use different search engines.

- If your native language is not the English one try your search in the English language too. The English and Spanish web are huge.

- Use quotation marks to search for a complete phrase. Without quotation marks the search engines search for each word individually.

The search for information online is not a difficult task. A lot of times though, we have to be patient and search methodically and persistently.

A lot of web users, when they search for information online, use only google, without being patient, persistent and methodical, coming fast to the conclusion that this information is not available online!

After this video, you will not fall into this category of users.

Isn’t that right?