ABSTRACT
In this age of “big data,” we take search algorithms for granted. Without websearch sites that are able to sift through billions of pages in a fraction of a second, the web would be practically useless. Similarly, large data repositories, such as those maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), would be useless without the ability to search for specific information. Even the operating systems on our personal computers now supply integrated search capabilities to help us navigate our increasingly large collections of files.
