New
New
Year 5

How search results can be influenced

I can recognise why the order of results is important and to whom.

New
New
Year 5

How search results can be influenced

I can recognise why the order of results is important and to whom.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Search results can be influenced in different ways.
  2. Search engines can make money for their owners.
  3. Search engines have limitations.

Keywords

  • Index - the location of items or elements in a list, array or string

  • Rank - the order search results appear in, based on how useful and relevant they are

  • Limitations - something that restricts what is possible or prevents something from working perfectly

Common misconception

Search engines do not prioritise any results.

Search engines order results by ranking them using an algorithm.


To help you plan your year 5 computing lesson on: How search results can be influenced, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

There is a lot of information about web browsing. It is important to remind children of how to be safe online and how that is important when performing searches using search engines.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
What is a search engine?
Correct answer: software that finds websites based on the search term used
a program that stores videos online
hardware used to browse the internet
a tool that creates websites automatically
Q2.
What is a web crawler used for?
to create websites
to rank search results
Correct answer: to collect information for a search engine’s index
to store information on a computer
Q3.
What determines the order in which search results appear?
Correct Answer: rank
Q4.
Match the terms to their definitions.
Correct Answer:index,a big catalogue storing web page information

a big catalogue storing web page information

Correct Answer:web crawler,a program that collects information for an index

a program that collects information for an index

Correct Answer:rank,the order search results appear in

the order search results appear in

Correct Answer:algorithm,a precise set of steps to organise results

a precise set of steps to organise results

Q5.
Arrange the steps of how a search engine works.
1 - A web crawler collects information.
2 - The information is stored in an index.
3 - An algorithm ranks the results.
4 - The user sees the ranked results.
Q6.
What is the purpose of ranking search results?
to make the search engine slower
Correct answer: to organise results based on relevance
to reduce the number of websites online
to store information in an index

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the terms to their examples.
Correct Answer:index,a database of stored web pages

a database of stored web pages

Correct Answer:rank,the order of search results by relevance

the order of search results by relevance

Correct Answer:limitations,search engines not always showing relevant results

search engines not always showing relevant results

Correct Answer:algorithm,steps used to decide which result appears first

steps used to decide which result appears first

Q2.
Why might search engines not always show the most relevant results?
Correct answer: due to limitations in their algorithms
because they do not use web crawlers
because they cannot access the internet
due to user error
Q3.
How do search engines make money?
by selling user data
by charging for searches
by selling web crawlers
Correct answer: by displaying advertisements
Q4.
What influences the order of search results?
user preferences
the number of websites in an index
Correct answer: the algorithm and ranking criteria
the speed of the search engine
Q5.
Why is ranking search results important?
Correct answer: It helps users find the most relevant information quickly.
It increases the size of the index.
It reduces the number of search results.
It ensures the fastest websites appear first.
Q6.
Arrange the steps for evaluating search results.
1 - Check the relevance of the results.
2 - Identify the most useful result.
3 - Click on the result to view it.
4 - Decide if the result meets your needs.