Wikipedia:Search engine test

This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus.

Shortcuts WP:SET WP:GOOG WP:GOOGLE WP:GOOGLETEST WP:GTEST

This page in a nutshell: Measuring is easy. What's hard is knowing what it is you're measuring and what your measurement can mean. Web searches test the understanding of the WP:Five pillars of Wikipedia.

A search engine lists web pages on the Internet. This facilitates research by offering an immediate variety of applicable options. Possibly useful items on the results list include the source material or the electronic tools that a web site can provide, such as a dictionary, but the list itself, as a whole, can also indicate important information. However, discerning that information may require insight.

Search engine results can help editors retain (what is notable) or delete (what is not verifiable) source material, depending on their reliability. There is a high demand for reliability on Wikipedia. Discerning the reliability of the source material is an especially core skill for using the web, while the wiki itself only facilitates the creation of multiple drafts. As presentations and deletions progress, this variety of choices for input tend to produce the desired objective—a neutral viewpoint. Depending on the type of query and kind of search engine, this variety can open up to a single author.