(Oracle, TRW, PLS, Architext, Fulcrum)
A retrieval engine following the distributed database model allows users to transparently navigate through multiple databases regardless of their location. Both documents and indexes can be distributed. The distributed database model offers three major advantages: * Publisher control of `look-and-feel', pricing, and editorial policies. * Seamless full text searching across local and remote servers. * Database groups that provide unique, personalized views of information. For example, a Market Research database group could consist of twenty separate databases stored on three different Web servers around the world. Some of the information is for internal eyes only, while other content is useful marketing information designed for customers. When users execute searches against the Market Research database group, they will be transparently searching across some or all of the twenty disparate databases as if they were one.
See also ``master index''.