The use of search engines for locating information on the cultural heritage of Croatia

In this paper the authors present an overview of how search engines work and the results of the use of different search engines for locating information on the web related to specific artifacts of the cultural heritage of Croatia. It was found that the Google search engine outperformed the competition in locating web sites with information on specific cultural heritage artifacts. In another analysis, selected web pages with general information on Croatian cultural heritage were examined regarding several elements of search engine optimization. Finally, a group of students of information systems were asked what their typical activity would be if they needed information related to the Croatian cultural heritage. Most of them indicated that they would first search the Internet/web. Recommendations are given regarding the means to increase the “ visibility” of information related to cultural heritage on the Internet/web, and the likelihood of this information being found by the users of this medium.