Search Engine

Search engine is a program or application that retrieves information from specific databases based on user-provided search criteria. There are many different types of search engines, each pulling relevant content from its own database.

For example, a phone number search engine pulls phone numbers associated with a given name from a phone number database. A land registry search finds the land registry number linked to an address, or vice versa. There are also tax number searches, domain searches, postal code searches, and license plate searches.

What is an internet search engine?

An internet search engine is far more complex than traditional search engines. The largest search engines on the web consist of multiple algorithms and are so intricate that even their creators may not fully understand how all the elements work together.

How does an internet search engine work?

Most search engines consist of two parts: one that collects and organizes data and another that delivers the most relevant search results based on search queries.

The data collection part uses indexing bots (also known as crawlers) to map out the entire internet by following links and indexing content into a massive data repository.

The serving algorithm selects the most relevant results for a user’s search query based on their assumed intent, then organizes these results by strict meta-information rules to display them in order.

Google search

The world’s largest and most well-known internet search engine is Google. In Hungary, 97% of internet users rely on Google, making it synonymous with the term “search engine.” Google’s success lies in its highly efficient algorithms that often return search results in the order users expect.

Market share in Hungary (2020)

Google algorithms index nearly everything with high precision, returning the best search results. Additionally, Google offers advanced search commands and operators to accommodate specialized search needs.

Google image search

From its early days, Google recognized the importance of images. Google’s algorithms index not only content but also images. The Google Image Search, now supported by artificial intelligence, allows users to search for images or even check where their own images appear online.

Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s search engine, developed in 2009. Although designed to compete with Google, it holds only a 2% market share in Hungary. Still, it remains the second-largest search engine globally.

Yandex

Yandex is the leading search engine in Russia, with a 65% market share.

Baidu

Baidu is China’s largest search engine, closely modeled after Google. It offers similar services, such as maps, news, and image search, as well as analytics, advertising, and its own browser.