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Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. They all allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index. Today, a top search engine will index hundreds of millions of pages, and respond to tens of millions of queries per day.

Search Engines vs. Directories

Search engines crawl through the web. Search engines eventually find your site and index the pages they find. Page titles, body text, meta tags and other elements all play a role in what gets indexed. People then search the index of what was found. Search engines, such as AltaVista, create their listings automatically using this method.

A directory such as Yahoo depends on human editors to create its listings. You submit a description of your site to the directory for editors to review. A good site, with good content, will be more likely to get reviewed than a poor site. A search of Yahoo looks for matches only in the editor’s own compiled index.