An automated program that systematically browses the internet to index web pages for search engines. Also called a web spider or bot.
A compound word combining 'web' (from World Wide Web) and 'crawler' (one who moves slowly and methodically). The term emerged in the 1990s during the early internet era, drawing on the metaphor of creatures that methodically explore their environment.
The name 'webcrawler' perfectly captures how these programs work - they don't rush through the internet but methodically crawl from link to link, just like a spider exploring its web. One of the first major search engines was actually called WebCrawler, launched in 1994 before Google existed.
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