Dynamic Imaging Solutions - Specialize in laminated bar coded labels for libraries. A search engine is a program that resides on a server and searches a database of web links and, in some cases, the actual web for information. Search agents like search engines vary in complexity and results generated. Meta-crawlers are search engines that search multiple search engines at a time. A spider is a computer program that searches the web and brings back a web page and documents linked to it.
Many search engines use spiders to gather web pages for indexing in their database.
Portals are web pages that serve as a gateway to the Internet, which may be a search engine or directory web page. Vortals or vertical portals are industry specific portals that serve as a starting point of information for that particular industry. A directory is an alphabetical listing of like objects arranged for easy reference. Some examples of web directories are Yahoo and the Open Directory. Many web directories often include search engines.