Search Engines

Search engines are used by millions of people each day, to help them locate various information on the internet. Search engines allow us to use one tool, the internet to find anything. This includes books, maps, clothing, phone numbers, restaurants; everything you can possible need. It is also a great way to find out information on products you are considering purchasing.

The first search engine introduced was I Robot. It was in place from 1993 until 1995. While this was an effective way to find information it did take time. It also resulted in the system crashing quite often. Today they have been retired to helping with creating the indexes for search engines. I Robot was replaced by Excite in 1993. Six college students devised the method of searching the web without crashing the entire system. Today Excite is part of the very popular Ask Jeeves.

Both Galaxy and Yahoo were introduced in 1994. Galaxy was very fast when it came to finding information and the system didn't crash, but it didn't last long. Yahoo quickly took over the World Wide Web. It was popular because each link also offered a brief introduction of what was offered. Yahoo continues to be a very popular search engine that is used today. Google continued with this process in 1997 and MSN Search came on board in 1998.

As the World Wide Web continues to grow, search engines will become more and more popular. One of the biggest challenges is finding more advanced ways to index the various search engines so that you can continue accessing the information quickly. Each search engine has criteria for listing links a little bit differently, so if you aren't finding what you are looking for on one search engine, consider trying another.

Submitting your website to the various search engines is very simple. You complete a form that asks you specific questions and you list information about your website and some of the keywords that are listed throughout your website. Those keywords play a huge role in determining the ranking your website will have on a particular search engine.

Businesses and advertisers continually try to find ways to manipulate search engine rankings. This is because 80% of the people who use search engines don't look beyond the first page. Search engine optimization is the process of using particular keywords on your web pages so that you get a higher ranking.