Definition of "search engine" []

• A software program that searches a database and gathers and reports information that contains or is related to specified terms. (noun)
• A website whose primary function is providing a search engine for gathering and reporting information available on the Internet or a portion of the Internet. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "However, if you really don't want a search engine to find a URL, mung it like people do with E-mail addresses (for example, dubdubdub dot example dot com)."
• "AdamR wrote: If the text is clickable, the search engine knows it's a link."
• "Finding URLs in my theoretical search engine is easier than in yours because yours has to look for A tags, then find the HREF attribute (or, for image search engines, the IMG tag and the SRC attribute)."