Search engines are websites which allow you to put in search terms in order to bring up a list of web pages that match the criteria. To create its database of web sites to search from, a search engine will routinely index pages on the internet. New web sites and pages are found by following links from ones that already exist in the database. This is automated by a computer program. Then, when a search is made by the user, the results returned are typically in order of relevance and popularity. The entire process behind the scene is quite complicated, but those are the basics. A typical user will not need to know much more to take advantage of the usefulness of a search engine.

Most search engines respond to keyword searches, rather than natural language searches. Keyword searches will pull up results based on the words used, without taking into account the implications it would have if said to a human. For instance, if you wanted to purchase books, you would search for “buy books” or maybe “books for sale”, rather than something like “I want to buy a book”. When encountering difficulty getting desired information, rephrasing the search will yield different results. Trying a synonym, or making the search less specific by removing a word. To require a specific string of words to be found, put them within quotation marks. Other advanced search options, such as excluding words, can usually be found in an advanced search feature.