search engine

noun
1.
a computer program that searches documents, especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of documents in which they are found.
Origin
1990-95
Examples from the web for search engine
  • First of all, a library catalog is structured differently from a search engine.
  • Build a better search engine, rather than restrict the availability of the information.
  • But the world's leading search engine and its related applications are turning out to be powerful research tools, too.
  • Feel free to cozy up to your laptop and visit a search engine.
  • The search engine wants to weed out sites that create low quality articles simply as a way.
  • They use such different strategies, she found, that a one-size-fits-all search engine can never satisfy everyone.
  • Even if you have a great idea for a new search engine, it's far from easy to get it off the ground.
  • In contrast, entering that same vague question into a search engine yields completely nonsensical results.
  • For information, read each search engine's help page.
  • Guidelines and resources to achieve search engine optimization.
British Dictionary definitions for search engine

search engine

noun
1.
(computing) a service provided on the internet enabling users to search for items of interest
search engine in Culture

search engine definition


Web sites or software that search the Internet for documents that contain a key word, phrase, or subject that is specified by the user to the search engine. Each engine has its own method of searching for information.

search engine in Technology
World-Wide Web, tool, information science
A remotely accessible program that lets you do keyword searches for information on the Internet. There are several types of search engine; the search may cover titles of documents, URLs, headers, or the full text.
A list of search engines (https://cuiwww.unige.ch/meta-index.html#MISC), Centre Universitaire d'Informatique at the University of Geneva
(1995-11-28)