4  Searching the web

  • The web contains a vast number of pages on a multitude of subjects. What sort of things do you search for? Perhaps some of the following:
    • films
    • friends
    • celebrities
    • help with homework
    • shopping
    • games
    • local services (eating out, train times, etc.).
  • When you search for things on the web, you normally use a search engine, which is an extremely large computer algorithm that discovers new webpages as they are created, and then lists relevant webpages when asked by you. Google, Bing and Yahoo! are examples of popular search engines.
  • When you open up a web browser such as Edge, Firefox or Chrome, you will often be taken to the search engine preferred by the browser’s developer, for example Microsoft Edge is very fond of Microsoft Bing!
  • When you type something into a search engine, it will search through all the webpages it knows about and provide a list of relevant sites. Depending on what you have asked the search engine to look for, you may be presented with a very long list of possible websites!

What is an algorithm?

An algorithm is an advanced computing concept – it is a set of rules, mathematical calculations or problem solving tasks to be followed, most often by a computer system.

Search engines have their own algorithms to decide what should be at the top of our search results.

3  Hyperlinks

5  Improving your searches