Search engines are an important part of the growing online economy, mainly because they are becoming an important part of how people use the Internet. Just 10 short years ago, Internet users weren’t using search engines very often, but favored index sites like Yahoo!, and for good reason. Index sites generally had human editors that chose websites based on topic and posted them in a hierarchical way where there were main categories and sub categories that got more specific. For example, under the heading “Arts and Humanities,” were more subtopics like “Artists, Art History, Visual Arts” and more. When users clicked on any of these subtopics, they would see even more subtopics. The directory of sites by topic allowed the user to find the exact topics they wanted and verity, with the help of human editors, that those pages contained good information. The sites listed were usually reliably accurate in regards to what the user was seeking and still exist to this day.           

On the other hand, search engine technology was far behind today’s standards ten years ago. By using older search engines, users would likely come up with search results unrelated to their keywords. Back then, the technology hadn’t evolved to accurately find and filter search engine results. By simply using some shady techniques, a webmaster could get his or her site displayed for totally unrelated keywords. For example, a site selling herbal supplements might be able to get their site to show up in search engines under search terms unrelated like “education” or “home mortgage.” The result was that search engines were fairly unreliable and not as many people used them. Today more than 85% of web users use search engines to find the pages they want.           

Currently there are several ways in which users can find the web pages they want to view:

First, they can use search engines. More than eighty-five percent of web surfers use this method in order to find what they’re looking for. Users can go to websites they’ve heard about on TV, radio, and print advertising. Examples include traditional advertising that lists a website as part of normal advertising, like listing fedex.com in a Fed Ex ad. Another example is an advertisement for a specific website like Monster.com or eHarmony.com. Users can click on ads they see online. Many sites display advertising on them, and users can follow those ads to find the sites they want to visit. Users can find websites they learned about from viral marketing techniques, a topic that will be discussed in greater detail in a later chapter. This includes links that have been sent to users by a friend or recommended by someone they know, like word of mouth advertising.