A search that examines all the text entered into the search box, instead of only keywords. Because most words entered into a search are common words, most search engines do not perform a full-text search. Below is an example of why the Computer Hope search engine, like most search engines, remove common words (stopwords).
Example search
How can I fdisk my hard drive?
When the above search is performed, our search engine removes “how,” “can,” “I,” and “my,” as they are not important to the search being performed. Removing those common words means, when running the above search, the search engine is really searching for “fdisk hard drive.”
Search, Software terms
Related information
- How to find information on the Internet.
- Listing and examples of popular Internet search engines.
