Multisearch is a multitasking

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

which includes both search engine and

metasearch engine A metasearch engine (or search aggregator) is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of a web search engine to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. S ...

characteristics with additional capability of retrieval of search result sets that were previously classified by users. It enables the user to gather results from its own

search index Search engine indexing is the collecting, parsing, and storing of data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Index design incorporates interdisciplinary concepts from linguistics, cognitive psychology, mathematics, informatics, and ...

as well as from one or more search engines, metasearch engines,

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

s or any such kind of

information retrieval Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the process of obtaining information system resources that are relevant to an information need from a collection of those resources. Searches can be based on full-text or other co ...

(IR) programs. Multisearch is an emerging feature of automated search and information retrieval systems which combines the capabilities of computer search programs with results classification made by a human. Multisearch is a way to take advantage of the power of multiple search engines with a flexibility not seen in traditional metasearch engines. To the end user, a multisearch may appear to be just a customizable search engine; however, its behind-the-scenes technology enables it to put a face to the search process and to retrieve and display also a results set which has been classified by a human during a multisearch session and automatically included in the documents index. There are additional features available in many search engines and metasearch engines, but the basic idea is the same: reducing the amount of time required to search for resources by improvement of the accuracy and relevance of individual searches as well as the ability to manage the results.

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See also