Coordinated views and tight coupling to support meta searching

This paper addresses how information visualization can support users in the meta search process and some of the design issues that arise. It describes MetaCrystal and its linked tools that enable users to control how to combine and filter the search results by different search engines. A hierarchy of aggregation is employed to provide users with quick insights into the number of documents found by a specific number or combination of search engines. MetaCrystal enables users to visually perform advanced filtering operations, such as complex Boolean constraints. This paper also discusses how to support tight coupling between the filtering controls and tools that operate at different levels of aggregation.