Do We Want or Need Metasearching?

摘要

There's no question that Internet users love Google-it's been my favorite since it was operating out of Stanford. Wouldn't users also love a similar system that allows them to search across subscription databases, their OPAC, and perhaps free web sites as well? We don't know. There have been no satisfaction studies published yet on metasearching, a new technology that lets users search across databases from diffrent vendors by using common search standards. Metasearching (a.k.a. federated searching or broadcast searching) is considered by some to be the next evolutionary step of database searching. Proponents believe that novice users, such as undergraduates, are baffled by the number of databases they have to choose from and need one common interface to meet all their research needs. A common interface, they claim, could wean novice searchers from using the Internet as their primary source tor research. Metasearching, then, could become the "new Google.