What is a metasearch engine

Metasearch engine is an engine that calls other independent search engines, also known as the "mother of search engines". The user's search questions are accepted through a unified search interface. The user only needs to submit a search request once, and the metasearch engine can automatically convert the user's search request into a format that can be recognized by multiple search engines based on the information in the knowledge base. Distribute and submit to multiple independent search engines and search multiple databases simultaneously.

Metasearch engines are also called collective search engines, parallel search engines or search engines of search engines. It integrates multiple search engines and provides a unified search interface.

The meta-search engine integrates multiple search engines and accepts the user's search questions through a unified search interface. The user only needs to submit a search request once, and the meta-search engine can search the user's search results based on the information in the knowledge base. The retrieval request is converted into a format that can be recognized by multiple search engines, automatically distributed and submitted to multiple independent search engines, and multiple databases are retrieved at the same time. Finally, the meta-search engine converts the retrieval results returned from each search engine. Collect it, perform comparative analysis, merge redundancy, remove duplicate information, and return it to the user in a certain format.

The core essence is to provide a "one-stop" search, which not only confuses the search scope, but also saves users the time of switching between different search engines, so that the user's search can be comprehensive and complete. improved, and strive to improve the recall rate. The difference between meta-search engines and ordinary search engines is reflected in four aspects:

(1) Meta-search engines can submit a question to multiple databases. A user's query can simultaneously retrieve multiple independent search engines and submit the same query in different forms according to the requirements of different independent search engines.

(2) Meta-search engine does not have its own independent resource library. General search engines have independent network resource collection and indexing mechanisms and corresponding databases, while metasearch engines do not have their own independent databases and collection programs. They act as an agent to accept user search requests.

(3) The results of meta-search engines are based on secondary processing of independent search engine results. The results of meta-search engines are based on the query results of independent search engines. A few simply call the original results page directly, but all of them implement secondary processing of independent search engine query results, such as deletion of duplicate results, re-ordering of results, etc.

(4) The meta-search engine indicates the source search engine of the result record and its degree of merging. In metasearch engines that customize the result output format, the search results generally indicate the source search engine of the record and its relevance.

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