1. A method comprising: receiving a query directed to a search; determining whether the query complies with one of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, each search index being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database; selecting a predefined search index corresponding to one of the plurality of search criteria if the query complies with said search criterion, the index containing entries that comply with the corresponding search criterion; applying the query to the selected index; selecting items based on applying the query to the selected index; returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items of the selected index.