Structuring Meta-search Research by Design Patterns

Design patterns shall support the reuse of a software architecture in different application domains as well as the flexible reuse of components. In this paper, we propose design patterns for metasearch engines. We also introduce design patterns for common components of meta-search engines e.g. query interface generator, information extraction, result merger and result ranker. Presented design patterns for meta-search engines and their components are reusable, extendable and flexible. These design patterns accelerate the development process in meta-search domain and other related domains. Moreover, it promises higher quality of developed solutions. These design patterns also provide developers with a shared vocabulary for easy communication.