Full-Text Search

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What Does Full-Text Search Mean?

A full-text search is a comprehensive search method that compares every word of the search request against every word within the document or database. Web search engines and document editing software make extensive use of the full-text search technique in functions for searching a text database stored on the Web or on the local drive of a computer; it lets the user find a word or phrase anywhere within the database or document.

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Techopedia Explains Full-Text Search

Full-text search is the most common technique used in Web search engines and Web pages. Each page is searched and indexed, and if any matches are found, they are displayed via the indexes. Parts of original text are displayed against the user’s query and then the full text. Full-text search reduces the hassle of searching for a word in huge amounts of metadata, such as the World Wide Web and commercial-scale databases. Full-text search became popular in late 1990s, when the Internet began to became a part of everyday life.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.