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Beware of Search Engines

Be careful what you look for...

By ASHLEY SMITHPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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After warning people to be careful when looking for adult results in another part of this site I thought I would expand to search engines specifically. First thing to realise is that these search engines don’t actually search after you type your words in, they have already done that in advance. Therefore, what they search is their own data banks for the answer. There is a game called google whack where you type into search 2 words and aim to get only one search answer, these days this is almost impossible as the internet has expanded so much.

What the search engine firms do is have automated computer “bots” which look for new things on the web and then they search for all information they can for that new item. Then every time the key name or word is found they expand their information stored. This will include all news, pictures, videos and social media links. So, if for example a footballer makes his debut and scores a goal then all the sites will be triggered to find all information on this person.

The theory with search engines is that the more people look at the page the higher it will be up the search list but this doesn’t always apply. It’s possible to manipulate the position a site appears in search engines, some legal and some not so. It's known as white hat and black hat. In general white hat is the good guys and black the bad guys. They indulge in security breaks for testing but also, it’s a practise used with search engines.

Basically, the search engine searches web sites for certain key words to put them on their results pages. So, a white hat programmer will make sure the front page of a site has key words for the search engine to see but only within a set percentage; this percentage is set by the search engines. This means everyone should have a fair chance at being shown as a result.

Black hat programmers will circumnavigate this percentage rule by putting too many key words on the front page and adding hidden words. They will print black words on black screens for example so they can’t be seen. Another trick is to put words just off screen so that the search engine gets them although they can’t be seen easily. The companies work to block sites that do this but some get through. Also, if it’s a site that shows videos for example then every video will get a search hit and so, is hard to police. This is how you will get numerous porn site answers if your search words aren’t carefully chosen and you don’t have a search safety mode activated. The sites and their content will have very long names so that theres a better chance of getting at least one word in the search. Basically, the longer the search you ask for the less the answers and vice versa.

Use the safe setting to avoid pornography as this will pop up almost regardless of what you search for. Be especially careful as there’s no guarantee that the answers will include legal content, also results may show from places where laws are different. This can include not only pornography but also terrorist content and other illegal content. Also, people who want to spread viruses and other malicious software will try and get people to access their programs through search engines. So, if you are searching for something be careful where you look and make sure it’s what you were looking for. Be specific with your search and read the description carefully before clicking on any site you haven’t used safely before.

cybersecurity
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About the Creator

ASHLEY SMITH

England based carer, live with my wife, her parents and 4 cats. will write for all areas but especially mental health and disability. though as stuff for filthy seems popular will try there . any comments, suggestions or requests considered

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