Search engines are certainly familiar to your ears, right? Today, more and more people are using search engines for various needs. Even small children often mention “Google”. Google is a search engine that you can use anytime and anywhere.
However, the search engine itself is not limited to just Google. There are many types of search engines used in different parts of the world, though Google is the most popular.
Well, in this article, we will try to discuss search engines starting from their understanding, functions, and how they work, to search engines examples that people often use and can use in various countries.
Get to know Search Engines
Have often talked about it but still don’t know for sure what is meant by a search engine? If so, then you can find out now through this article.
Literally, the notion of a search engine is a search engine where we can easily translate a word from English to Indonesian. We can define search engines as online tools designed to search websites on the internet based on user queries.
Search engines or search engines focus on gathering and organizing information on the internet according to user needs. From there you can find various websites that can provide whatever you need. For example, when you type “cheap shoes” in the search field of a search engine, the search engine will display various results from various websites.
Although there are various search engines in the world such as Google, Yahoo, and DuckduckGo the general principle is the same which is to provide the same answer regardless of which search engine you will use.
How Search Engines Work
How Search Engines Work (source: Pixabay – Geralt)
You may be curious about the system or how the search engine itself works. If so, let’s find out together. Search engines can differ from one another in providing answers to their users. However, in general, they all have the same principle.
The workings of search engines are crawling, indexing, and ranking.
Crawl
Every type of search engine has bots crawlers whose job is to scan or scan internet content. The crawler will check every corner of the virtual world from web pages, folders, sub-pages, to other content. In other words, the bots will be looking for anything they can hunt.
Basically crawling will browse website content based on the links it finds. In addition to parsing links or links A, it will also search and find links B, C and so on.
Indexing
We can call indexing as the process of validating the storage of content from web pages in search engine databases called index. Call it a huge library of all websites. This happens when the bot is crawling data.
Websites must be indexed by search engines in order to be displayed in search results or SERP (Search Engine Result Page). What you have to remember is that crawling and indexing don’t just happen once. Both work continuously so that the database is always fresh so that the search results displayed are the most relevant.
Ranking
The next step in how search engines work is ranking, where search engines will follow search results. The ranking process is carried out based on the algorithm of each search engine.
Search engines will select the most relevant results which are then displayed in ranking order. The content that is most appropriate to the search for internet users is the one in the top ranking or search results.
The process does not take long. As you know that search engines like Google will immediately display search results as soon as you press the enter button in the search field. The search engine turns out to work that fast, even less than a second if there are no problems with the internet connection on the device you are using.
Search Engine Function
Another interesting thing about using a search engine is its functionality. Some of you may be curious about the functions of search engines even though they have been using them for so long to search for anything based on their needs.
As software that works to find information in a database by matching information with keywords, search engines have many functions, including:
Ease of Searching Website or Blog Addresses
Search engines have a large capacity and will continue to be adjusted along with the increasing number of internet users. In search engines, there are various kinds of information that humans need when they use this one engine.
Means of Finding Information
Due to its enormous capacity, search engines are able to provide various information in various languages
Effective for Browsing
With a search engine, you don’t need to look for information by accessing websites or blogs one by one. Accessing several websites certainly takes a long time, not to mention that we must first find out what websites provide the information we need.
Types of Search Engines
You must already know that Google is an example of the most widely used search engine in Indonesia. Here are some examples or types of search engines that you can use. You can also use it as an alternative if you want to try another search engine besides Google.
Google is a search engine that focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and professional marketing. This search engine has an easy-to-use interface.
Google track its user activity through its service and then store detailed search history including the websites you visited and others. Every day, this popular search engine receives millions of traffic from internet users who perform searches.
Bing
As a search engine claim Microsoft, you can proudly use Bing. Although not as big as Google, but who would have thought if Bing can still master the search on the internet.
Yandex
If you want to try another search engine, then Yandex can complete your search. This search engine is used by more than 45 percent of internet users in Russia. Other countries that use Yandex a lot are Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Ukraine. Besides being easy to use, this search engine also offers some interesting tools.
DuckduckGo
DucduckGo . Search Engine
What’s interesting about DuckduckGo is his claim of protecting the privacy of the users. Where no cookies are used to track searches. This search engine was founded in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg in California.
Yahoo
Yahoo has been widely known for a long time and has gained popularity in its time. Yahoo was ranked as the fourth most visited site until 2020 (according to data on Ahrefs). The average monthly visitor reaches a fantastic figure of 30 million.
Swisscows
If privacy is very important to you, you can consider this search engine. Yes, this search engine never collects, stores or tracks data out of respect for the privacy of its users. Swisscows calls itself a family-friendly semantic search engine.
Wolfram Alpha
First time hearing Wolfram Alpha? It is a computational knowledge search engine that does not provide a list of documents or web pages as search results. The results that users will get are based on facts and data about their questions.
This search engine has existed for approximately 12 years since its first launch in 2009. However, Indonesians are not familiar with this type of search engine.
StartPage
If you like Google search results but don’t want my search history to be tracked and saved, StartPage could be the right choice. Yes, this one search engine provides answers from Google.
Search Encrypt
Search Encrypt is a private search engine that uses local encryption to ensure that its users’ searches are completely private. It uses a combination of encryption methods including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption and AES-256 encryption.
gibiru
Claim from gibiru is that the search results displayed are sourced from the modified Google algorithm. Users can search for various information without having to worry about Google tracking their activities.
OnceSearch
Search Engine – OneSearch
In January 2020, Verizon Media launched a privacy-focused search engine that is OneSearch. It promises that there is no tracking of cookies and will not share users’ personal data with advertisers. Not only that, the user’s search history will also not be saved by this search engine.
Baidu
In China, Baidu is the most popular search engine. Even though you can access it from anywhere, but Baidu only use Mandarin. So, internet users who do not master the language will find it difficult to use this search engine.
CC Search
CC Search stands for Common Creative Search, namely a search engine that is suitable for players in the creative industry. The content on this search engine is free and there are many types of copyright.
Looksmart
To be one of the pioneers of the search engine and online advertising industry, Looksmart could be another search engine option. This search engine also offers PPC or pay per click advertising for those who want to serve ads online.
Boardreader
For those of you who are interested in finding forums on a specific subject, try using Boardreader as a search engine. Through this search engine, you will find the forum you want.
Ecosia
Ecosia – Search Engine
This type of search engine is very interesting. What distinguishes Ecosia from other search engines is that this search engine contributes its profits to planting 1 tree in an area in need.
Ask
Previously, Ask was named Ask Jeeves and Ask.com which operates as a question and answer platform. As a visitor you can not only ask questions, but also answer questions from other visitors. But currently, Ask functions as a regular search engine that you can use to search for videos sourced from YouTube.
Conclusion
That’s the information about search engines, functions, and kinds. If previously you only knew Google and a few popular search engines, now you know more, right?
You can use all types of search engines according to your search needs. Even some of them are perfect for those of you who really prioritize privacy but are still comfortable surfing in cyberspace.
If you need SEO services for the website you want to create, don’t hesitate to contact seoraiseup. Hopefully, this information is useful see you next time.
