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Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress writes: > From: "Thomas Dowling" <[log in to unmask]> > > You can define differences between meta-, federated, and > > broadcast search, but every discussion on the topic will be > > punctuated by people asking, "Wait, what's the difference again?" > > Leaving aside metasearch and broadcast search (terms invented more > recently) it is a shame if "federated" has really lost its > distinction from"distributed". Historically, a federated database > is one that integrates multiple (autonomous) databases so it is in > effect a virtual distributed database, though a single database. I > don't think that's a hard concept and I don't think it is a trivial > distinction. Either it IS a hard concept, or you didn't describe it properly -- because I still don't get exactly what is going on here. Are you using "federated" to mean which Thomas and I (independently) are calling "local indexes"? _/|_ ___________________________________________________________________ /o ) \/ Mike Taylor <[log in to unmask]> http://www.miketaylor.org.uk )_v__/\ "... about as similar as two completely dissimilar things in a pod" -- Black Adder.