Metasearch

• R&D of next-generation algorithm for deployment in 2005

• Goal to approach ultimate in precision searching

• First government deployment was made by OSTI in 1999

• Searching multiple deep Web databases via a single query

• Applied to largest collection of government R&D databases through Science.gov in 2002

• Introduced meta-ranking of metasearch results in 2004

• Patrons often overwhelmed by too many hits

Speaker Notes:

Goal to approach ultimate in precision searching

Metasearch, involves searching multiple deep Web databases via a single query, and the first government deployment was through OSTI in 1999. Then in 2002, metasearch was applied to the largest collection of government databases through Science.gov. This was a major advancement, but suddenly we had too much of a good thing. Patrons were often overwhelmed with too many hits, so in 2004 we introduced meta-ranking of metasearch results. Our goal is to approach the ultimate in precision searching, and we plan the R&D of the next-generation algorithm for 2005.

On the OSTI home page at http://www.osti.gov there is a video tutorial about the deep Web and metasearch.