Critical Account of Search Engines. The Genesis of Search Engines

Critical Account of Search Engines
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Critical Account of Search Engines
When it is said that the world has been reduced into a global village, the question that often begs more answers is, by who and how? Search engines therefore take credit for the emerging global village. Search engines are web-based tools that enable users to locate information from the World Wide Web (WWW). The user access the information from the internet (web) by putting key words or phrases into search engine. Search engine play central role on how people access information by creating a crucial link between content providers and users (Hargittai, 2007). People turn to search engines daily to search information about various topics and issues of political, economic social and or cultural dimension. The most commonly used search engines are Google and Yahoo. This essay offers a critical analysis of search engines as internet innovation particularly focusing on four key thematic areas; critical account of its genesis; how it is part of historical trend in communication media, or information management, the owners and controllers of key business in this field; lastly who benefit from its transformative effects in political, economic, social and or cultural terms and those who does not.
The Genesis of Search Engines
The interpretation of search engine creation significantly rests on their individual classification, design and ability to navigate the web to retrieve for data retrieval. There are four different types of search engines which determine the choice of the user when searching for information. They include Crawler based search engine, Directories search engines, hybrid search engines and Meta search engines. These four categories are necessary for critical account of the genesis of search engine. It is informative of which category was first developed and what informed the development.
Search engines were nonexistent until in 1990 when Allan Emtage, a student at McGill University created the first tool for searching the internet called Archie (Castells, n.d). The latter was based on directory downloading all the files located on unknown public sites to create a database containing filenames that are searchable. This has however been overtaken by events due to the increased clamor for digital information. The first ever developed tool for searching the internet sharply contrasts with the modern and popular search engines like Google which is uses automated program for web-indexing in order to update their search indexes.
Currently, Google is the most used search engine worldwide and this is attributed their system operation. The designs of search engines is the defining feature for their classification which in turn is influenced by the user’s social, political, cultural or economic behavior. Search engines merely respond to the context of the user’s behavior or activity manifested in the kind of words keyed into the search box (Konig, 2014). They use the words to navigate the web to retrieve the desired data or something close to the key words or phrases used. The information retrieved or located upon search is a combination of words put into the search box. Web crawler, normall...