Full-text search

In text retrieval, full-text search refers to a set of techniques for searching a single computer-stored document or a collection in a full-text database. Full-text search is distinguished from searches based on metadata or on specific parts of documents, such as titles, abstracts, selected sections, or bibliographical references.

In a full-text search, a search engine examines the words in stored documents to find matches for user queries. Full-text-search techniques began to appear in the 1960s (for example, IBM STAIRS in 1969), and became common in online bibliographic databases during the 1990s. Many websites and application programs, including word processors, implement full-text search functionality. Some web search engines, such as the former AltaVista, indexed the full text of web pages, while others indexed only selected portions of pages.

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