How to Configure SharePoint 2013 Federated Search for Different Data Sources?

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OverviewFederated search in SharePoint 2013 is a search approach to display search results for additional search contents using search engines like Google, Bing, and TechNet instead of SharePoint search service application.

There are a unique set of advantages of using Federated search. Few of them are:

We do not need to think about additional capacity for content index. Because contents are not crawled by SharePoint Enterprise Search.

We can federate the search engines like Google and Bing to search over the Web.

Better content search performance.

Capability to access contents that are secured against crawls.

In this article we will walk you through that how to federate search contents for Google, Bing and TechNet.

Federate Search for Google, Bing and TechNetFederated search configuration method is same for all three kind of data sources mentioned above. Only change is configuring different “Source Url” for each data source on “Manage Result Sources” page.

In our case we have used source URL for Bing.

Step 1: Add New Search Result SourceBrowse and login to your SharePoint 2013 site and click on “Site Settings” from settings menu.

You will be redirected to Site Settings page. Click on “Search Result Sources” link.

You will be redirected to Manage Results Sources page. Click on “New Result Source” link.

You will be redirected to Add Result Source. Complete the required information like Name, Description, Protocol, Query Transform, Source URL and Credentials Information. For example see sample:

Click on “Save” button. You will see that new search result source is created.

Step 2: Build Search Query RuleGo to Site Setting page again and click on “Search Query Rules” link

You will be redirected to Manage Query Rules page. Select “Local SharePoint Results (System)” from the content drop down list and click on “New Query Rule” link.

New query rule form page will be open for you. Enter the query rule name. In our case we choose “Federated Search Sample Query Role”. Next click on “Remove Condition” link

Now click on “Add Result Block”. A pop up will be opened for you. Fill required details as given below and hit “OK” button.

“Add Result Block” setting allow us show federated search results in a block and the location of this block to display on the search result page.

Once you click on “OK” button popup will be closed. Now click on “Save” button to save the changes.

You will be redirected to Manage Query Rules page where you will see a new search query rule is created.

Step 2: Test Federated Search Result

Go you SharePoint 2013 Site. On the top right corner you will find a search text box. Enter search query in this search text box and hit Enter button.

The search result page will be open for you having search results against your search query entered into search text box. If you notice on search results page you will find a new block on the top having federated search results. In our case we have search for “SharePoint 2013” and we find that on the top we have a heading called “Federated Search Results for “SharePoint 2013””.

You will also not these search results are coming from different website over the internet world wide instead of SharePoint server.

You will see at bottom of search result page having search results from SharePoint server as well.

So in this article we have gone through the process of how federated search is configured in SharePoint 2013 for multiple data sources.

Thank you!