What must a user enter into a search engine to find information?

Entering keywords into a search engine is a fundamental aspect of retrieving information. Keywords are specific words or phrases that encapsulate the main ideas of what a user is searching for. When typed into a search engine, these keywords help the engine to index and retrieve relevant information from its vast database of websites, articles, and other resources.

Keywords can be general or specific, allowing users flexibility in how narrowly or broadly they want to search. For example, someone looking for information on healthy recipes might enter "healthy recipes" as keywords, which directly informs the search engine of the content they are interested in. This leads to results that are better tailored to the user's needs.

While queries, commands, and questions are also elements of searching, keywords are the most essential and effective means of finding relevant content in search engines. Queries can refer to the overall search phrase entered, commands are more often related to specific instructions in a computing context, and while users may also phrase their searches as questions, the backbone of the search itself lies in the keywords that define those searches.