We use them every day, but what is the overall purpose of a search engine?

The purpose of using a search engine is to use specific wording to narrow down your search..

Explanation:

example; u need to find more info. on your topic; say the topic is on measles..you will be suprised on how many results you get... hense, the first topic listed is what u are looking for. but explore the whole list..

end result is finding the topic that closely resembles your main topic, question, or hypothesis..