search engine

views updated Jun 08 2018

search engine A program that when initiated by a search command from a user interface examines a body of data for items satisfying the search criteria and returns the items or their locations to the interface. The data could be, say, a literary database or information about very large numbers of World Wide Web sites. Google, Alta Vista, and Yahoo are examples of Web search engines.

search engine

views updated May 23 2018

search en·gine • n. Comput. a program for the retrieval of data from a database or network, esp. the Internet.