realneo

Well The best way to first learn is by seeing and hearing at the same time.(with a teacher) Lynda.com has some amazing php courses. You could find them on torrents but I am not sure if its legal. If your a complete new to programming I would suggest first to find courses where a teacher explains. When you thing you know enough then turn in to books.

I think the best way to learn is to really concentrate one thing at a time. Begin with PHP (Know all the variable, arrays , strings, function and the rest). Then MySQL(This is very simple, know all the CRUD (CREAT, READ, UPDATE, DELETE)) With the above two languages. You can create almost any website, the only thing that will be missing is the dynamic look thats where you will learn AJAX or jQuery. NOTE::::> Also learn how relational databases work. I guess the rest will develop as you continue your journey.

Absolutely right! The database is also among the important choices. PHP works best with MySQL.

Well Problem Solved! PHP is fantastic for dynamic web pages such as engine! NOTE::::::> PHP will not interact dynamically as you write like google. So I would suggest PHP & AJAX or jQuery. With these you can create a real dynamic search engine.

What I think is, PHP works perfect in search engines but the question is where do you want to run your search engine? 1. Web Browsers ( Internet explorer , firefox, chrome, opera) 2. Stand alone application ( Windows .exe or Mac App) 3. Mobile Software??? and so on? => PHP will work best in Web Browsers. I think that why it was even created. Hope this helps!

It may not help but Do you think its because of your using POST instead of GET?

Well, its easy when working with databases. ------------------------------------------------------ <?php $new_div=""; if(isset($_POST['submit'])){ $new_div = echo"<div> everything that it can hold</div>"; } ?> if working with databases <?php while($row=mysql_fetch_array($query){ echo"<div> Everything in it </div>"; } ?>