Metasearch engines automatically and simultaneously query several Internet search engines, interpret the results, and display them in a uniform format. They typically do not use their own web indexes.
Architecture
A metasearch engine usually consists of three components:
- Dispatch mechanism: The algorithm, or decision-making approach, determines to which search engines a specific query is sent.
- Interface agents: The program manages the interaction with a particular search engine. The interface adapts the user’s query format to match the format of a particular search engine. Interface agents are also responsible for interpreting the diverse native result formats.
- Display mechanism: Raw results from individual search engine must be integrated for display to the user. Results can be displayed with little additional formatting and can be rank ordered or interleaved.
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