MetaLib, WebFeat, and Google. The strengths and weaknesses of federated search engines compared with Google
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520610686300 |
| Pages | 413-427 |
| Date | 01 July 2006 |
| Published date | 01 July 2006 |
| Author | Xiaotian Chen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
MetaLib, WebFeat, and Google
The strengths and weaknesses of federated
search engines compared with Google
Xiaotian Chen
Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Seeks to describe library federated search engines MetaLib and WebFeat as research tools
by comparing MetaLib with WebFeat and by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses against
Google and Google Scholar.
Design/methodology/approach – This study tested MetaLib and WebFeat from various libraries;
attended vendor demos and asked vendors questions; reviewed literature; and interviewed system
administrators of MetaLib and WebFeat.
Findings – MetaLib and WebFeat have fundamental differences between them. They cannot
compete with Google in speed, simplicity, ease of use, and convenience, nor can they be truly one-stop
shopping. Their strengths lie in the contents they search as well as in the objective way they retrieve
and display results. With the federated search engines, information literacy education is still relevant.
Originality/value – The comprehensive comparisons of MetaLib and WebFeat from the
perspectives of both users and system administrators are original. It helps libraries make decisions
when they select federated search engines, and it gives libraries realistic expectations of federated
search engines compared with Google.
Keywords Search engines,Information literacy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Library federated search (or metasearch) engines have become increasingly popular for
libraries to improve services. The obvious advantage of the federated search is that
users can search multiple library online resources simultaneously from one uniform
interface, so that they do not have to try databases on various interfaces one by one.
This article aims to describe the features of library federated search engines MetaLib
and WebFeat by comparing them with each other and by highlighting their strengths
and weaknesses against Google and Google Scholar. MetaLib and WebFeat are used in
this article to represent library federated search engines or metasearch services, since
they are among the most popular ones on the market for libraries. Google is used to
represent the internet search engines.
One of the major reasons the federated search was developed was to imitate
Google’s simple one-stop-shopping feature. But can the federated search imitate Google
or can it “out-Google Google” (Fryer, 2004)? The author of this article believes that the
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
The author is grateful to Ellie Hansen of Bradley University for editing this paper and to Carol
Antoniewicz and Ruth Lewis of Washington University in St Louis for sharing their MetaLib
experience.
MetaLib,
WebFeat, and
Google
413
Refereed article received
9 February 2006
Revision approved for
publication 13 March 2006
Online Information Review
Vol. 30 No. 4, 2006
pp. 413-427
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520610686300
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