Is your federated search a kitchen sink or an Easter Island? Federated Search Blog.
Abe pointed me to an article, “An info island or the kitchen sink: when you think about federated search engines, think about what you’ll include in the searches.” While the article is a bit dated (2007) it has this air of timelessness to it.
The author, Richard Todd, considers three paths to source selection:
In the course of implementing a federated search engine at my organization, I eventually recognized three fundamental approaches for determining which of the available sources to include in our system. I call these three guiding concepts the kitchen sink approach, the Easter Island approach, and the gatekeeper approach.
Without reading further can you guess what these three approaches are? Abe told me that he was contacted by someone who threw out these terms as if Abe should be familiar with them. He wasn’t. Neither was I.
Continues @http://federatedsearchblog.com/2010/01/19/is-your-federated-search-a-kitchen-sink-or-an-easter-island