The internet is a web of pages connected to each other by
hyperlinks. Search engines are constantly running a program called
"spider" that crawls through these web pages to collect information
about them. Each time it finds a hyperlink, it follows it until it has visited
every page it can find on the entire internet. For each page of the spider
visits, it records any information it might need for a search by adding it to a
special database called a search index.
Each search engine uses its own
algorithm to rank the pages based on what it thinks we want. The search
engine's ranking algorithm might check if our search term shows up in the page
title, it might check if all of the words show up next to each other, or any
number of other calculations that helped it better determine which pages we'll
want to see and which we won't.
Google invented the most famous algorithm for choosing the
most relevant results for a search, by taking into account how many other web
pages are linked to a given page. The idea is that if lots of websites think
that a web page is interesting, then it's probably the one we're looking for.
This algorithm was called "Page Rank", not because it ranks web
pages, but because it was named after its inventor, Larry Page, who is one of
the founders of Google.
Because the website often makes money when we visit it,
spammers are constantly trying to find ways to game the search algorithm so
that their pages are listed higher in the results. Search engines regularly
update their algorithms to prevent fake or untrustworthy sites from reaching
the top. Ultimately, it's up to us to keep an eye out for these pages that are
untrustworthy by looking at the web address and making sure it's a reliable
source.
Search programs are always evolving to improve the
algorithms so that they return better results, faster results then their
competitors. Today's search engines even use information that we haven't
explicitly provided to help us narrow down our search. So, for example, if we
did a search for dog parks, many search engines would give us results for all
the dog parks nearby even though we didn't type in our location.
Modern search engines also understand more than just the
words on a page, but what they actually mean in order to find the best one that
matches what we're looking for. For example, if we search for a "fast
pitcher" it will know we're looking for an athlete, but if we search for
"large pitcher" it will find us options for our kitchen.
To understand the words better, we use something called
machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence. It enables search
algorithms to search not just individual letters or words in the page, but
understand the underlying meaning of the words. The internet is growing exponentially
the information we want is just a few keystrokes away.
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