Abstract: This invention discloses how Virtual Database Technology can be used to make disparate data appear to be (or act as) the sort of uniform data one expects to find within a single relational database. In particular, we show how to process queries similar to those one might use in a database, even though the underlying data may be missing some of the capabilities that are required by normal databases. Whereas traditional databases require that all the tuples in a table be stored, our approach allows queries over tables where the tuples are generated as required from the data sources, and may not be stored anywhere. We show how such facilities can be used as a new foundation for Internet search.