Federated searching
October, 2004
This article grew out of a two-part member question
about federated search software:
1. Can you share any
federated search requirements or features?
2. How do taxonomies and federated searching work together?
Are teams looking at how to create a taxonomy that takes the results
from a federated search (across multiple databases) and use a taxonomy
to improve the results that come back from each source? |
Here we describe federated searching, show how it works, give some pros
and cons of the technology, and finally tackle the issue of taxonomy.
We also include excerpts from a reply to the question from another Society
member.
What is federated searching?
In a federated search, the user enters a word
or phrase into a single form and receives results from multiple "targets"
— i.e. other search engines, commercial information services, or
internal databases (see below). To implement the capability, companies
must install a federated search program on their server or subscribe to
an information service which allows the use of such a program.
More ...
(members only) How to become a member
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