Internet browser

However, not having an Internet connection at present is quite difficult, since if it is not through Wi-Fi, we can connect by cable, satellite or any of the mobile technologies such as 3G or 4G , for which We can always be in touch and be able to finish our work. As long as we have the necessary software tools, such as a good browser, all we have to do is connect to the network and access an Internet search engine.

Few know that behind the network of networks there is an incredibly complex world of connections, standards and protocols, of which the user only sees the final end, that is, the page that he has accessed through the Internet search engine, the piece key to making the Internet as easy to use as it is today. That is why choosing  an Internet search engine, or search engine,  as it is also called, is not an easy task, since it must gather a series of characteristics so that each of us feels comfortable using it, and also offer the most successful results to our needs.

In this post we will find interesting information about  Internet search engines, as  well as a list of  the best Internet search engines  today.

What are Internet search engines?

Basically,  Internet search engines are a computer system,  that is, hardware and software, that allow us to find results from our search in the millions of websites that make up the Internet.

Search refers to the words or phrases that we enter in the main search box of the search engine. In the case of having entered the phrase  “dog breeds”,  the search engine will return all the web pages in the world that include this set of words. It should be noted that  the searches do not have to be only in Spanish,  since we can do it in English or in any other language, but the results returned will be in the language in which we entered the search.

Currently, the most important Internet search engines are Google, Bing and Yahoo!, the latter being the pioneer in this matter, since it was put into service in 1994.

Internet search engines are classified into four main types:  search engines, subject indexes, multi and meta search engines, and vertical search engines,  each with  well-defined differences in terms of search algorithms  and the way they are used. organize the information they use to deliver and present the results. If you are interested in knowing more in depth  how Internet search engines are classified , do not hesitate to continue reading.

Types of Internet search engines

Hierarchical search engines or search engines

The first type of search engine is the so-called  “Search Engine”,  which uses a technology based on the collection of data and files. For this they use the so-called Robots, a spatial software called  “Spider”,  which systematically and constantly travel the web  accessing the servers in order to create an index to create the databases  where to store the information found on these servers, which the search engine will then access to find an equivalence with the search terms that the user has entered.

It should be noted that the task carried out by Internet spider robots is constant, that is, they can repeatedly enter a server, which guarantees that the information is always updated, in accordance with the work carried out by those who maintain a Web.

The robots also serve to inform the search engine’s servers if the web page or its content continues to exist, and act accordingly, that is, updating or eliminating it.

Perhaps the most important example of this type of server is Google.

Search engines by subject index

The second type of Internet search engine is the so-called  “Search by index”  or  “By thematic index”.  In this type of Internet search engine,  the information on the various web pages is classified taking into account categories and subcategories,  which make up a directory of categories.

The main advantage of  this type of Internet search engine  is that the results obtained are more precise, since they are filtered from subcategory to category, according to the complexity of the search text entered by the user.

Unlike search engines,  in search engines by index, the information collected is categorized by human personnel,  not automatically, which in theory means being able to find positive results more easily. Examples of index search engines are WebCrawler and Excite.

Multisearch and metasearch engines

The third type of Internet search engines is made up  of multi-search engines and meta search engines,  which are not search engines by themselves, since they do not use their own resources, they  all use the services of other search engines such as Bing, Google or Yahoo! to offer us results.

In other words,  multisearch engines or meta search engines do not have their own database,  to offer results to users they use other search engines. Although this may seem useless at first, since we could search directly in search engines on our own,  the truth is that as an advantage we can mention that searches can be more complete,  since by  including results from several search engines, we could find what we are looking for in a much faster and more direct way. Examples of this type of search engine are MetaCrawler, Dogpile and DuckDuckGo.

Vertical search engines

The fourth type are the vertical Seekers. Basically,  a vertical search engine is a search engine for a specific information niche , that is to say that in these types of sites we will not find other information that is not the one specifically dedicated to, which allows us to access specific information on a topic in particular more directly and quickly.

The   best known examples of vertical search engines are IMDB, a search engine specialized in cinema, Allmusic, specialized in music, and Softonic, specialized in software. However,  they are not the only vertical search engines,  since we can find specific ones for science, communications, art, literature and other areas.

Later in this post we will continue to talk more in depth about vertical search engines, also called specialized search engines.

The best Internet search engines

Google

The search service offered by Google is currently the most used in the world,  not only because of the immense capacity to return accurate and fast results from websites, images, videos and news,  but also because of other complementary features such as various dictionaries, including synonyms, the weather forecast, quotes of various currencies, maps, movie theaters, airport information, sports scores and much more.

It should be noted that  to be able to use Google searches it is not necessary to register,  but it will be possible to obtain better benefits if we access through a Google account.

Yahoo! 

The oldest of all Internet search engines is Yahoo, and also one of the most used in the world. Founded in 1994, it offers, in addition to image, text, video and other searches, other complementary services such as  Yahoo! Answers,  which also makes it a very interesting search tool, at the Google level.

Regarding  the rivalry between Google search engines and Yahoo! for being the best, it  is a question that only users can answer, according to their own experience and need.

Like Google,  Yahoo! It can be used without being registered,  but it offers a better experience if we use it through a Yahoo! account.

Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s bet to access one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. The tool of the Redmond company,  although it is a very complete search engine and that offers an excellent number of results quickly,  has not finished being accepted by users, one of the main reasons perhaps the custom, but it What is certain is that they  relegate Microsoft’s search engine to third place  when they are desperate since they cannot find what they are looking for on Google or Yahoo!

Perhaps this situation will change for Bing at some point, since as we mentioned it is a good search engine, which offers us a  quick search for images,  videos, websites and others. As with other search engines,  Microsoft Bing can be used without being registered,  but we will get a better use of the tool if we access through a Microsoft account.

Access Bing

Lycos

Another old survivor of times gone by. This  Internet search engine,  founded in 1994, although it has not undergone changes or has evolved too much, it is still used by millions of people around the world,  and although it does not offer other tools such as image or video search , therefore it does not be liked by many users, the truth is that the results are offered very quickly, and they are quite successful. Undoubtedly an Internet search engine to find what we are looking for without distractions.

Access Lycos

MetaCrawler

MetaCrawler is one of the best  examples of meta search engines,  since the searches, whether for images, news, websites or videos that we do through this search engine will be obtained by consulting other search engines such as Yahoo! or Google.

Although this may at first seem quite foolish, since we could search for it directly in those search engines,  the truth is that if we use MetaCrawler, the results for a search can be a little more complete, since they are fed from several sources to the time.

Search engines that respect our privacy

Fortunately,  many users are taking the privacy of their data very seriously when browsing the Internet.  It is well known that the large search engines collect abundant information about our movements and habits on the Internet, with the purpose of selling them to third companies to develop advertising strategies.

In the event that we do not want this to happen,  we can always use a search engine that does not track our steps, such  as those mentioned below.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is  one of the search engines that most respects the privacy of its users,  and that is why it has experienced such significant growth in recent years. Like MetaCrawler,  DuckDuckGo is a meta search engine,  however, the user can be calm when doing his searches for images or websites, since the system does not register any queries,  because it works through proxies, which on the other hand it does not allow to obtain more personalized searches.

It should be noted that among the features offered by this Internet search engine is the ability to command it through our voice. 

Access DuckDuckGo

StartPage

Although StartPage is a very little known search engine,  it is not possible that it is one of the Internet search engines that most respects the privacy of its users,  since it does not store or record any type of information about search terms, be it images, videos or text, or where these data are requested. As a curious fact, we can mention that it  is the search engine used by the Tor browser.

Another way to  face the protection of the data of the users of this Internet search engine  is by using preferences preset by the user, which are eliminated after 3 months have elapsed without the user using the service. An excellent alternative  if we want to take care of what large companies know about us.

Access StartPage

Specialized search engines

Above in this post we talked about vertical search engines, which are also called specialized search engines. These vertical or specialized search engines are basically search engines that restrict an Internet search to resources that meet a series of specific requirements.

An example would be, for example, book search engines, scientific article search engines and art search engines, among others.

It should be noted that specialized or vertical search engines are maintained by knowledgeable people in the matter they deal with, therefore the information that we can find in this type of site is much more accurate and rigorous than that that we can find in sites that deal with these topics in a generic.

Some examples of specialized or vertical search engines are:

Academic google

The Google academic search engine allows you to find numerous specialized documents in various disciplines and sources, such as theses, scientific publications and academic articles.

Architecture search engine

In this specialized search engine we can find all kinds of resources and bibliography about many aspects of architecture.

Biography search engine

In this specialized search engine, as its name indicates, we can find biographies about famous personalities.

Eco Portal

In this search engine we will find all kinds of documents, articles, magazines and books on various topics.

Ecology Resources

In this search engine we can find a lot of information and resources such as events agenda, forums and information directories on ecology and the environment.

Education and teaching

Search engine specialized in resources for primary and secondary education.

Scientific Resources

In this specialized search engine we can find a lot of information on various scientific topics.

Another search engine specialized in science topics, very complete and with a great variety of topics.

PDF search engine

Search for PDF documents in almost 100 million scientific publications around the world.

Another complete and easy-to-use PDF document search engine.

Academic search engines

Although Google, Bing or Yahoo are the fastest and most complete search engines, the truth is that when obtaining precise information on a specific topic, especially if it is a scientific topic, it is almost impossible to find reliable data, mainly due to the great number of sites that these search engines index, and by not having a method to be able to filter the contents to check if they are exact or truthful, we can spend days searching without finding accurate answers to what we are looking for.

As many know, when completing a job or research work, we must be sure that the data we have included in it is accurate. That is why the option of searching on Google, Bing or Yahoo and keeping the first results that these search engines present us is practically suicide.

Fortunately, for this type of needs there are academic search engines, libraries that allow us to obtain the accurate information that we are looking for, and which we can use with confidence, since the documents that are stored in these academic search engines have been prepared by experts in the subject, and peer-reviewed and scholarly in general.

Some examples of academic search engines are:

iSEEK Education

iSEEK Education is an academic search engine whose main mission is to collect hundreds of thousands of scientific and educational documents from universities, universities, the government and other educational authorities.

SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online)

Basically, SciELO is an academic search engine whose general purpose is to collect and publish journals and scientific material on the Internet in a cooperative way. This search engine has been developed keeping in mind the educational and scientific dissemination needs of developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Science.Science.gov

This academic search engine is capable of searching more than 60 databases and 2,200 websites of 15 North American federal agencies, the result being more than 200 million pages of scientific information from the most authorized scientific sources in that country. On the negative side, we must mention that most of the content is in English.

Where does the name Google come from?

The search engine giant Google was born on September 27, 1998 as the product of the long journey undertaken by its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, when they were doing their doctoral thesis at Stanford University with the aim of improving the algorithms used by the Internet search engines of that time .  Surely they would not have imagined that their intelligence, and their $ 100,000 investment would lead them  to turn Google into one of the most influential technology companies in recent years.

Google is currently an important company that, in addition to offering the web search service,  also provides other important features such as the famous GMail, the Android operating system for mobile phones, the Google Chrome browser, Google Earth or Google Drive to name just a few. few, all services of excellent hierarchy and benefits, in addition to being totally free. But in addition, Google not only invests in software and services, but has also extended its intentions to hardware, through devices such as smartphones or ultraportable Chromebooks.

Origins of the name Google

Among the many theories and anecdotes that refer to the origin of the company’s name,  the most accepted of them all is the one that suggests that the name Google comes from “googol”,  a term coined by the mathematician  Edward Kasner , who used it for the first time to call a mathematical expression that means ten to one hundred (10100).

Regarding this, the story is known that when the mathematician asked his 8-year-old nephew how he would express a large number, a very large number, the largest he could imagine,  little Milton Sirotta expressed a sound that Kasner interpreted as “googol”.  A short time later, Kasner christened an even larger number: the googolplex, which stands for 10 to the googol.

Then,  according to a Biography Channel documentary about the founders of Google,  when the company’s first investor handed over a check for $ 100,000, he asked what name he should endorse it in, Brin and Page said they wanted to name the company “Googol.”  but the businessman accidentally wrote “Google”, thus forcing the company to have this name.  The rest is history.

Derivatives of the name Google

Googolplex: it  is the name by which Google’s work buildings and residences are known  ,  in Mountain View, California, and also to other complexes distributed throughout the world.

Googolduplex:  is the name used when someone refers to one of Google’s housing complexes; This name, referring to mathematics, refers to 10 raised the googolplex.

Origins of the Google logo

According to the story, the logo so characteristic of Google observes those colors not for a matter of aesthetics or fashion,  but due to the tribute that its creators wanted to pay to the computer that gave birth to the project, built entirely with blue Lego bricks. red, yellow and green.

Google is Alphabet

Currently, Google is part of a conglomerate of companies called Alphabet Inc., which in addition to dealing with development in different areas of technology such as software, Internet and others, also has a strong presence in areas such as telecommunications, biotechnology, home automation and health, among many other activities.