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 meta-search 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.