What Is Federated Search? (+ Types & Examples)

Are you struggling to keep track of all the different databases, storage locations, and product catalogs for your online store? 

It can be a real headache to manage all that information while still ensuring that your customers can easily find what they’re looking for.

But don’t worry, there’s a solution that can make your life easier – federated search. 

By supporting federated searches, your customers can search multiple data sources simultaneously, which improves their experience and engagement on your site. 

Plus, it simplifies data management for your eCommerce business!

Implementing a federated searching is a great way to help your customers have a seamless online shopping experience. 

Keep reading to learn more!

What Is Federated Search?

Federated search is a search technique that generates results from multiple data sources for one search query.

It’s like having a personal assistant who can search the internet, your internal databases, and even the cloud for information that matches your query. 

And the best part? It presents all the results in one easy-to-use interface.

For example, imagine a customer wants to find information about a specific product, but they’re not sure which database it’s stored in. 

With federated search, they can enter their query once and the search engine will simultaneously search all relevant databases, returning all the relevant results on one page.

But federated search doesn’t just save your customers time and effort; it also helps protect their security. 

By passing along user credentials in the search query, federated searching ensures that users only have access to the information they’re authorized to see. 

For eCommerce managers, this means you can offer your customers a seamless and secure search experience.

Federated search is already used by popular search engines like MacOS Spotlight and Windows Search, and it’s becoming increasingly common in eCommerce. 

By implementing a federated searching feature on your site, you can enhance your customers’ experience and improve their ability to find what they’re looking for.

Why Is Federated Search Important?

If you’re an eCommerce manager, you know that one of the biggest challenges you face is making it easy for your customers to find what they’re looking for. 

Now that we know the federated search meaning, let’s explore the benefits of federated search for eCommerce sites, including how it improves customer experience, makes website expansion manageable, supports browsability, increases the relevance of search results, and improves reliability and security.

Delivers a Better Shopping Experience

Let’s be honest. Online shoppers have a short attention span. 

If they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll bounce from your site to your competitors. 

That’s where federated search comes in. 

With this tool, your customers can search from a single location and get results from all available sources, including your product pages, documentation, multimedia assets, and more.

This makes your content and data more browsable and useful. 

Plus, the fewer clicks or pageviews required to find a product or service, the more likely you are to convert the user. 

When users find key information faster thanks to a federated searching tool, you’ll see improved click-through and conversion rates.

Streamlines Website Expansion

Are you tired of setting up a new search tool every time you add new content or data locations to your eCommerce site? 

It’s time to streamline the process with federated search. 

Whenever you add new content or data sources, you can easily integrate them into your existing federated site search. 

This way, you won’t have to worry about setting up an independent search tool for each new type of content.

Enhances Browsability and User Engagement

Federated search is a real game-changer when it comes to discovering new information and keeping users engaged. 

One of the things that make it so great is that it’s easy to modify, add or restructure data, all while ensuring that the data remains searchable.

But that’s not all. You can also customize each part of the federated searching user interface, making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. 

This way, they won’t have to sift through irrelevant content or feel overwhelmed by too much information. It’s like having your very own personal search engine!

By creating a user-friendly browsing experience, you can encourage your users to stay on your site longer and come back again and again, and perform federated searches. 

So why settle for a run-of-the-mill search function when you can have a federated search that really wows your audience?

Boosts Search Results Relevance

So, you know how when you search for something online, you get a ton of results that may or may not be relevant? 

Well, with federated search, you can actually customize the relevance of the content you show your users based on its type. 

This means you can rank different types of content based on different parameters, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

The more information you have to work with, the more accurate and relevant your search results will be!

Plus, when users interact with these improved results, you get valuable data about what they’re searching for and how they’re doing it. 

This lets you guide them to even more helpful content and make their search experience even better. 

Before we move on to the next half of this article, I want to give you a fair warning that we’re really going to dive into some pretty technical stuff. 

If you want to skip all of that and just implement an advanced search solution, go check out Doofinder.

What Types of Federated Searches Are There?

If you’re looking to implement federated search on your site, you might be wondering what types of federated search exist. 

Well, there are a couple of distinct types of federated search that you should know about search-time merging and index-time merging. 

Each approach has its own unique advantages and disadvantages that you should consider before deciding which one to use. 

What Is Search-Time Merging?

Essentially, this type of federated search allows you to search multiple data sources at once, by sending a single query to each of them.

Here’s how it works: when a user enters a search query, the federated search system sends that query out to all the individual search engines in each data source. 

Each search engine then returns a list of results based on that query, and the federator aggregates them into a single list. 

This final list is then presented to the user, who can see results from all the different sources at once.

Advantages of Search-Time Merging

1. Fast Implementation

Search-time merging taps into the existing search indexing systems of each separate data source. 

This means you can quickly set up your federated search engine without any complicated data aggregation.

2. Supports Multiple Data Formats

You don’t need to standardize your data before implementing a search-time merging solution, as it searches each index separately. 

This means you can keep your data in whatever format works best for you.

3. Updated Results

Because each individual index is always up-to-date, your search-time merging federated search engine doesn’t have to constantly go back and re-index the source to make sure the content and results are up to date. 

This means you’ll always get the most current search results.

Disadvantages of Search-Time Merging

1. Slower Response Time

The federator can’t deliver final results until all individual search engines respond. 

That means it’s limited by the slowest search engine, which may not meet real-time expectations. 

And let’s be honest, in eCommerce, speed is king. Customers want results fast, and slow response times can lead to lost sales.

2. Poor User Experience

Another challenge is ranking the aggregated results. 

Each search engine scores relevancy differently, making it difficult to present a unified ranking system. 

You may have to present results from each engine separately, but that can lead to a poor user experience.

3. Searches Lack Relevance

Catalog management and taxonomy management can also be more complex with federated search engines, requiring more tuning and maintenance. 

This can result in poor search relevance, which is a big issue for eCommerce. 

What Is Index-Time Merging?

Index-time merging is an incredibly powerful approach to federated search that can really take your eCommerce business to the next level. 

With this approach, you create a single, unified index of all your data sources that is searched at one time. 

That means your users get faster, more relevant results, without the need to wait on local search tools to respond to a query.

Of course, setting up an index-time merging solution can be quite a task. 

You need to aggregate data from multiple locations into a single index and ensure that all your different types of content are being ranked according to a unique relevance strategy. 

But trust us, the effort is worth it for the enhanced functionality and user experience.

Advantages of Index-Time Merging

1. Quick Load Speed

First and foremost, index-time merging uses a central index that allows for lightning-fast response times. 

Since everything is centralized in one place, it makes it much easier to find the needle in the haystack.

2. Supports Data without a Search Engine

Another great advantage is the ability to use any data or content that lacks its own search engine. 

This means you can utilize a much wider range of data, giving you more options to work with.

3. High Relevancy

Index-time merging allows for sophisticated query enhancement and relevancy algorithms.

Users will get excellent search results ranked by relevancy, which is a major win.

4. Modern User Experience

With index-time merging, the content is taken care of first, and then filtering, faceting, and other capabilities of the search user experience like auto-complete are built on top. 

This ensures a best-in-class search experience for your users.

Disadvantages of Index-Time Merging

When it comes to the disadvantages of index-time merging, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. 

1. Long Implementation 

One issue that you might encounter is that implementing an index-time merging solution can take a bit longer than other options. 

This is because there is more initial complexity involved in creating the central index and ensuring that everything is set up properly.

2. Slow Updates

Another potential drawback is that there may be a delay in updating the content in your central index from the content sources. 

This is why it’s important to use a solution with connectors that have incremental update features. 

This will allow you to see incremental updates of changes every five to ten minutes, which can help you stay on top of things and make sure your customers are always getting the most up-to-date results.

Federated Searching Interface

Imagine having a search tool so advanced that it gathers all the relevant content sources you require, such as product information, product reviews, and social media posts, in one place. 

This is precisely what a federated search interface does, giving you unparalleled search capabilities.

By using a federated searching interface, you can fine-tune the relevance of each content type separately. 

This makes it easier for your customers to find what they need, and they can see a result list for each type of content in a unified interface.

However, implementing a federated search interface requires some thoughtful planning and a powerful search solution that can index various types of content in different indices.

But the result is an exceptional search experience for your users, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and more sales for your eCommerce business. 

Federated Search Examples

Federated search solutions are quickly becoming essential in the online business world. 

With so much content available on eCommerce websites, enterprise-level platforms, and software company sites, it can be tough for customers to find what they need. 

But don’t worry – federated search has got your back! 

Let’s check out how a federated search engine can be implemented into these different types of online businesses.

Federated Search for eCommerce

As someone who loves to shop online, I know that trying to find what you want can be overwhelming, especially when you’re dealing with a vast array of products, reviews, and guides. 

That’s where federated search comes in – it’s a real game-changer in the eCommerce world! 

By enabling customers to search through all available content, regardless of its location on the website, it makes the shopping experience a lot less stressful and improves the chances of a successful sale.

Federated Search for Large Corporations

If you’re running a large corporation with multiple websites for different purposes, you know how challenging it can be for visitors to find the information they need. 

Without federated search, they may end up leaving without engaging with your brand. 

But with federated search, visitors can enter a keyword and search through all available content simultaneously. 

This makes things a lot easier for them and increases the likelihood of them continuing to engage with your company.

Federated Search for Tech Companies

I know how frustrating it can be when you’re trying to find the right software, but the site search features just aren’t cutting it. 

Luckily, tech companies can benefit greatly from a federated search solution. 

By integrating a seamless federated search feature into their website, they can greatly enhance the customer experience and potentially increase their sales. 

With this feature, users can search the entire website, including products and documentation, with just one query. 

It provides real-time results and categorizes them into different groups for easy interpretation.

Pictures and short descriptions are added when applicable, making content discovery and navigation a breeze for users. 

Overall, federated searching is a fantastic way to improve the customer experience, increase engagement, and boost sales for software companies.

Implementing a Federated Search Engine

Implementing federated search engine can really make a difference in any website because it enables your customers to find exactly what they’re looking for, even if that information is spread across multiple data sources.

But, implementing federated search engine can be a bit tricky from a technical standpoint, especially if you’re attempting to build a search engine from scratch. 

With Doofinder, you don’t have to worry about any of that. 

Doofinder’s advanced site search solution makes it easy to integrate a federated searching feature into any eCommerce platform or custom website.

It delivers extremely fast AI-powered search results no matter how many data sources you use.

The best part? Doofinder’s federated search solution offers a significant return on investment (ROI) for almost any kind of business. 

By making it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for, you’ll be able to boost conversions by up to 20% and keep your customers coming back for more. 

So why not check out Doofinder by requesting a free demo video and see why we have over 10,000 happy customers around the world?