What is indexing by the search engine ?

Search engine indexing means how data is collected, parsed, and stored to facilitate fast and accurate retrieval.

Popular engines focus on the full-text indexing of online documents , or other searchable media types such as video, audio and graphics. Meta earch engines use the indices of other services and do not store a local index. Larger services typically perform indexing at a predetermined interval due to the required time and processing costs, where as agent-based search engines index in real time.

What is a Search Engine ?

Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Similar services are provided by "directories," which maintain ordered lists of websites, eg google, Yahoo!

Software that enables users to search the Internet using keywords. Examples of well known services of this type are AltaVista and Google!.

A program which acts as a card catalog for the Internet. Search engines attempt to index and locate desired information by searching for keywords in which a user specifies. The method for finding this information is usually done by maintaining indices of Web resources that can be queried for the keywords entered by the user.