In computer science, "crawling" refers to the process of automatically searching and indexing web pages by software programs known as web crawlers or spiders. These programs systematically navigate the internet, following the links on a webpage and downloading its content to analyze and store it in a search index. Crawling is an essential component of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as it allows them to explore the web and deliver relevant results for user queries.
Typical functions of software in the "crawling" domain include
