When looking to understand how search engines work, it is useful
firstly to consider what the purpose of a search engine is: ‘A
search engine’s objective is to provide the user with links to
the most appropriate pages on the internet which pertain to the
query which they have typed in.’ Let’s imagine a user types in
the following query: ‘how do search engines work’. For now let’s
take the internet out of the equation – imagine there’s no
internet it’s easy if you try (sorry couldn’t resist). So, how
might you go about researching something like this? Firstly you
might ask someone you know, respect and trust if they know of
any good sources, for example: - someone who teaches computer
science - someone who works for a search engine - a librarian
Now having asked around hopefully you’ve been given a shortlist
of sources – how would you move forward?Remember – you’re not
just looking for any old answer – you are looking for the most
appropriate answer… You might begin to narrow down your search
by sorting throug