Task

Federated Search

Canonical ID https://id.searchplex.net/federated-search/

A retrieval task or system pattern in which a query is sent to multiple search services, collections, indexes, or databases and their results are combined for the user.

Also called

Federated Information Retrieval
Distributed Information Retrieval

Scope

Federated search commonly involves source selection, query dispatch or translation, result merging, and presentation of a unified result set. It is distinct from ad hoc retrieval over a single known collection.

Broader

Retrieval

Not equivalent to

Federated Search is not Ad Hoc Retrieval. Federated search searches multiple sources and merges results; ad hoc retrieval is typically evaluated against one known fixed collection.
Federated Search is not Result Fusion. Result fusion is a combining operation; federated search is the broader multi-source search task or system pattern that often uses result fusion.

Learn more

Federated Search

ID

Canonical ID
https://id.searchplex.net/federated-search/
Scheme
Searchplex ID
Machine
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