What is meta search?
When performing a Web search a search engine will generally scan its own and sometimes one or two of its partners’ listings. Thus, the search results, albeit comprehensive, for the most part stem from a limited number of sources and therefore, theoretically could miss certain important results listed with engines other than the ones employed by the particular engine. That is why meta search offers an alternative to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other heavily-used search engines. There is no guarantee that meta-search results are more comprehensive than those of regular search engines. But more sources will be queried, and there is thus at least a chance that utilizing a meta-search engine will provide results that would have been missed otherwise. Most meta-search engines include Google, LookSmart and other industry leaders, as well as a number of smaller engines in their queries.
