This KS3 ICT quiz is our second look at the reliability and validity of information. You use a search engine to find websites related to your topic. There are a lot of different search engines but most people use just one! A search engine uses software that automatically visits websites and 'reads' their contents. The information is then stored in the search engine's database. When someone types a query into a search engine, its software looks through the database and finds which sites are related to the query. It then uses a set of instructions to automatically decide which of the sites are the most relevant from the hundreds of millions contained in its database.
Search engine software tries to understand what you are looking for. It has no intelligence and so the results are not always useful. When searching, there are several different techniques you can use to get better results.