Patent ID: 7483883

Claim:
A search method, comprising: extracting query information based on input from a user; pruning a list of at least three suppliers based on which of the at least three suppliers can provide a search result to a search request based on the query information to automatically generate a list of at least two suppliers to search; transmitting to at least two supplier sites, a search request based on the query information, where each supplier site is associated with a respective one of the pruned suppliers, and wherein each supplier site performs a search and produces at least one search result; receiving, at least one search result from a first one of the supplier sites and at least one search result from a second one of the supplier sites; and incrementally transmitting the search results to the user, such that the search result from the first one of the supplier sites which is received before the search result from the second one of the supplier sites is presented to the user before the search result from the second one of the supplier sites.