What Makes You Get Faster Search Results On Your Browser?

It is no secret that you get very fast search results on your browser. But have you ever tried to search for a file on your computer? It could annoyingly take up to minutes. What makes your browser (search engine) search faster than your computer? Are websites (files) on the internet somehow handled differently? In this article, we shall try to analyse the differences that make the browser deliver significantly faster search results.

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Search Results on Your Computer

When you are searching for a file on your computer, you input a quey ‘string’. This string contains information that you want your computer to match against existing records of files. The computer then runs a search algorithm that scans through a target set of files on your hard drive. The targeting is meant to accelerate the search, and can either be done by yourself (when you choose to search within a particular folder, for example), or by the computer.

The information about your files is stored in your hard drive, and this information has to be physically gathered. All of this takes time. Depending upon your hard drive, this could take up to minutes. If your hard drive is mechanical, the disk has to spin physically, and this naturally takes longer. If your hard drive is a solid-state device, there is no spinning disk, and the information is gathered faster.

Over the years, like any technology, computer engineers have been hard at work in improving both the search algorithms as well as the data storage methodologies. Search times have come down by factors compared to the past. But still, the result delivery speed does not hold a candle to browser search results. What could the browser be doing differently?

Search Results on Your Browser

A browser (search engine running in the background) has no special advantages up its sleeve to do the actual search faster. What it does is an optimised trick known as ‘indexing’. When you enter your search request input (string), the browser sends it as a request to a huge data center. This data center has already scanned through millions of websites, and has created an index of the information on these websites. Think of it like the librarian of the library. She is still a human being. But she has access to a registry of indexed information that lets her access books more efficiently.

As soon as the data center gets the search request, it runs it up against the indices, and narrows down the candidates for the search result. In short, the fast search result is enabled by two key factors. One is that the hard work of scanning data and indexing (organising) the information is already done by the search engine provider before your request. The second factor is that your search request is not handled by your computer, but rather by much powerful computers in the form of the data center. These are also computers that have been optimised for performing one task as efficiently as possible. Think of them as specialists. So, it’s no wonder why you get such fast search results on your browser.

It is also worth noting that a browser by itself does not ‘search’. It runs a search engine in the background. In the past, one had to visit the website of the search engine provider (like Google) before one could key in the search request. But as time has passed, browsers have integrated search engine functionality within themselves for ease of use.

Can Your Computer Mimic Search Results on Your Browser?

To be clear, your stand-alone computer cannot challenge a data center. Your hard drive has its limitations as well; there’s no denying that. However, ‘indexing’ should still be a possibility on any computer. In fact, it is! You can actually get faster search results on your computer as well. All you need to do is spend some time to setup your indexing as per your preferences or requirements.

Now, indexing takes up computer resources. It’s no free lunch. So, you cannot index your entire computer without paying a penalty for it. It often makes sense to narrow down specific access areas where you search for the most. On Windows 10 for example, you can go to Control Panel -> Indexing Options. There you can choose which folders you wish to scan through and index beforehand. If you know which folders are relevant for your future search queries, this would significantly speed up search results even on your personal computer.

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Further reading that might interest you: Can You Unplug Your USB Stick When You Want? and How You See Traffic Conditions On Google Maps.