Search engines use a variety of techniques to help users find relevant information. They do this through an iterative process that combines discovery, crawling and indexing.

Discovering content involves using software to scan the Internet and collect links. This information is then stored in an index, similar to the back of a book. The indexed pages are then ranked by search algorithms in a way that helps the user find what they’re looking for.

Crawling and indexing are two of the most important parts of a search engine’s process. Without crawlers, the web would be too cluttered and hard to navigate.

During the crawling process, a search engine sends bots across the web to gather all available information. This includes articles, blog posts, images and videos.

This information is then processed, analyzed and tagged with attributes and metadata. It helps search engines understand what the content is about, and it also allows them to weed out duplicate pages.

Once a page has been crawled, it must be analyzed and categorized to make sure that it contains the keywords it needs to match a search query. This can take some time, but it’s crucial for a search engine to have a well-organized index of web pages.

Some search engines offer a number of categories for you to choose from, which can be helpful if you’re trying to narrow your results. These include news, music, video, e-commerce and more.

You can also use a list search, which displays a series of related pages, often in different categories and sub-categories. This method is a good choice when you want to limit your search and ensure that the most relevant results are presented first.

A simple way to find more specific results is by using quotation marks in your phrase or title. This works best for phrases that have more than one word, such as Godzilla vs. Kong or 2021 movies.

Another way to make your search more specific is by adding a filetype operator before your query. Google, for example, lets you specify a file type in the URL before your search query. This can be useful if you’re looking for an audio clip, image or other type of file.

Capitalizing words is an old technique that helps focus your search on proper nouns. This is not always the best approach, however, since search engines generally ignore capital letters.

If you’re unsure of the exact phrase or question you are searching for, try “parallel browsing.” This means that you start with a single query phrase and then tweak it in each new browser tab to get fewer, more focused results.

The search engines are constantly improving their understanding of what people actually type or say when they’re looking for information. This is one of the main reasons why you’ll often see results that don’t quite make sense when you do a search – they aren’t exactly what you were looking for in the first place!