Windows 7 enables searching for content on remote locations right from the Explorer itself. Integrating federated search into Windows gives users the benefits of 
using familiar tools and workflows to search remote data. This enhanced integration provides the added benefit of highlighting matches within the searched document. Windows 7 enables federated search via the public OpenSearch standards. Other improvements are the consistent UI for remote search results within Windows Explorer and the ability to drag and drop files listed in the search results between different locations.
A handful of search connectors are already available for Windows 7 beta. I have compiled a list of all the popular search connectors available:
The credit for Flickr search connector goes to Long Zheng, for Twiiter Search to Chakkaradeep and for YouTube, Google News, Google Blogs, Yahoo and MSN Search goes to dmex.
I have also come up with my own search providers for Windows 7 Search Federation:
If the search provider supports OpenSearch standards then you can use the following code snippet to built your search connector for that provider:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/">
<ShortName>Name of the Provider</ShortName>
<Description>Description of the provider</Description>
<Url type="application/rss+xml" template="Valid RSS link to search results”/>
<Url type="text/html" template="Valid RSS link to search results"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>
You can also make your own search provider for any website even if it doesn’t support OpenSearch standards by using Live Search. Here is the piece of code which i used to make a Wikipedia search connector for Federated Search in Windows 7.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/"> <ShortName>Wikipedia</ShortName>
<Description>OpenSearch for Wikipedia via Windows 7 Search Federation.</Description>
<Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3Awikipedia.org&count=50&format=rss"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>
Simply copy/paste the above code in a notepad file and replace the text in Bold(Red) and save it as .osdx file extension so that Windows 7 can recognize it as a valid Federated Search Connector file.
Download Search Connectors Pack for Federated Search in Windows 7
