Lesson plan

Metasearch engine

A metasearch engine (or search aggregator) is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of one or more web search engines to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. Sufficient data is gathered, ranked, and presented to the users. Problems such as spamming reduce the accuracy and precision of results. The process of fusion aims to improve the engineering of a metasearch engine. Examples of metasearch engines include Skyscanner, SearchSpot and Kayak.com, which aggregate search results of online travel agencies and provider websites. SearXNG is a generic free and open-source search software which aggregates results from Internet search engines and other sources such as Wikipedia and is offered for free by more than 70 SearXNG providers.

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Article summary

A metasearch engine (or search aggregator) is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of one or more web search engines to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. Sufficient data is gathered, ranked, and presented to the users. Problems such as spamming reduce the accuracy and precision of results. The process of fusion aims to improve the engineering of a metasearch engine. Examples of metasearch engines include Skyscanner, SearchSpot and Kayak.com, which aggregate search results of online travel agencies and provider websites. SearXNG is a generic free and open-source search software which aggregates results from Internet search engines and other sources such as Wikipedia and is offered for free by more than 70 SearXNG providers.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.