search engine

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

search engine
    n 1: a computer program that retrieves documents or files or
         data from a database or from a computer network (especially
         from the internet)

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

search engine

   <World-Wide Web, tool, information science> A remotely
   accessible program that lets you do keyword searches for
   information on the {Internet}.  There are several types of
   search engine; the search may cover titles of documents,
   {URLs}, headers, or the {full text}.

   A list of search engines
   (http://cuiwww.unige.ch/meta-index.html#MISC), Centre
   Universitaire d'Informatique at the University of Geneva

   (1995-11-28)