You need information. No time to lose. What do you do? Google it, of course! The search engine can scan through the internet, track relevant websites that you may want and generate a list of links to these sites for your viewing pleasure, all in a matter of seconds. Researching has never been easier. The convenience that online search engines provides explains their vast popularity: the world’s most popular search engine, Google search, receives “over 200 million queries each day through its various services.” (Google search, 2007)
A search engine is “an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored” (Search Engine, 2007) on the internet. Search engines were created, even before the World Wide Web, in attempt to “organize the Internet.” (History of the Internet, 2007) The first of these was Archie, created by Alan Emtage in 1990. This program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located on public anonymous FTP sites and provided a searchable database of only filenames, exclusive of file content. The first full-text Web search engine was the WebCrawler, which was created in 1994. Unlike its predecessors, the WebCrawler searches through not only page titles but also the entire page content. This has become the standard for all major search engines since.
Search engines must be a big deal on the Web right now, or why else would the word “google” be added into the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary as a legitimate verb in the English language? Why else would Chris Sherman write a book in 2005 named Google Power? Why else would Yahoo! receive an average of 3.4 billion page views per day as of October 2005? (Yahoo!, 2007)
The Web search engines receive such great attention not undeservingly. Research has shown that “a majority of Web page access are referred by search engines,” (Cho & Roy, 2004) so much so that the survival of online businesses is somewhat determined by how high they are ranked on online search lists. A study conducted by a marketing firm, Enquiro, showed that “65% of North Americans use search engines to come to a purchasing decision.” (Baker, 2004) This is the extent of how dependent Web users now are on search engines.
Such dependence is, of course, not without reason. The mass of information available on the internet is rich yet disorganized; it is constantly, and so efficiently, being updated and added upon that it is impossible for individuals to keep close track of. By allowing keyword searches and displaying search results ranked in term of relevance, search engines aid a lot in the organization of the web. The filtering of irrelevant sites, especially, makes online browsing much easier. It is no wonder then, that Compete.com findings show MySpace.com and Yahoo! as the 2 top sites that Web users spend most time on. (Baker, 2007)
A search engine is “an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored” (Search Engine, 2007) on the internet. Search engines were created, even before the World Wide Web, in attempt to “organize the Internet.” (History of the Internet, 2007) The first of these was Archie, created by Alan Emtage in 1990. This program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located on public anonymous FTP sites and provided a searchable database of only filenames, exclusive of file content. The first full-text Web search engine was the WebCrawler, which was created in 1994. Unlike its predecessors, the WebCrawler searches through not only page titles but also the entire page content. This has become the standard for all major search engines since.
Search engines must be a big deal on the Web right now, or why else would the word “google” be added into the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary as a legitimate verb in the English language? Why else would Chris Sherman write a book in 2005 named Google Power? Why else would Yahoo! receive an average of 3.4 billion page views per day as of October 2005? (Yahoo!, 2007)
The Web search engines receive such great attention not undeservingly. Research has shown that “a majority of Web page access are referred by search engines,” (Cho & Roy, 2004) so much so that the survival of online businesses is somewhat determined by how high they are ranked on online search lists. A study conducted by a marketing firm, Enquiro, showed that “65% of North Americans use search engines to come to a purchasing decision.” (Baker, 2004) This is the extent of how dependent Web users now are on search engines.
Such dependence is, of course, not without reason. The mass of information available on the internet is rich yet disorganized; it is constantly, and so efficiently, being updated and added upon that it is impossible for individuals to keep close track of. By allowing keyword searches and displaying search results ranked in term of relevance, search engines aid a lot in the organization of the web. The filtering of irrelevant sites, especially, makes online browsing much easier. It is no wonder then, that Compete.com findings show MySpace.com and Yahoo! as the 2 top sites that Web users spend most time on. (Baker, 2007)
Many have come to realize the influence of search engines on web page popularity. Human rights groups all around the globe are collaborating to create a search engine of their own, in order to help coordinate campaigns against abuse. These groups found that “they are not well served by current search engines,” and thus, “detailed local information about rights abuses could have been overlooked.” (BBC News, 2006) Microsoft has also set up a “special charity search site based on their Live.com search engine” so as to raise global awareness of the plight of refugee children. (Reimer, 2007) In current times when the internet is congested with information, it is search engines that tell people what to read and what to take note of.
With such power in hand, search engines cannot be dismissed as just a passing phase on the Web. Judging by the amount of study and research done on them, it is safe to conclude that their influence over Web users will remain and continue to be in control of the reader traffic of online pages and sites. Yet, with the Net now constantly evolving, who knows? Maybe one day there would be the invention of another web program that would revolutionize web organization and strip search engines of their glorious position on the internet. We can only wait and see.
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References:
Baker, Loren. (2007, January 25). MySpace.com and Yahoo Top Sites People Spend Most Time On. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=4322#more-4322
Baker, Loren. (2004, April 26). Search Engines Influence Consumer Research. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=493
BBC News. (2006, December 1). Search Engine Aids Rights Workers. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6198244.stm
Cho, Junghoo, & Roy, Sourashis. (2004). Impact of Search Engines on Page Popularity. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=988672.988676&coll=portal&dl=ACM&type=series&idx=SERIES968&part=series&WantType=Proceedings&title=WWW
Google search. (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Google_search&oldid=103185004
History of the Internet. (2007, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Internet&oldid=103255177
Reimer, Jeremy. (2007, January 24). Microsoft Sets Up Search Engine for Charity. Retrieved January 27, 2007, from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070124-8687.html
Search engine. (2007, January 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Search_engine&oldid=102827900
Yahoo!. (2007, January 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:00, January 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yahoo%21&oldid=103432789
