2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of search criteria is time, wherein the selected predefined search index is ordered based on a time sequence from most recent to least recent and wherein the query is applied to most recent items of the selected predefined search index first based on the ordering of the selected predefined search index.
1. A method comprising: receiving a query directed to a search; analyzing the query to select a characteristic of the query that limits the number of records that the query can retrieve from a database; determining whether the selected query characteristic complies with a search criterion of a plurality of search criteria, each of the plurality of search criteria corresponding to a predefined search index, each predefined search index being drawn from a database and containing identifiers for records of items in the database; selecting a predefined search index corresponding to the selected query characteristic; applying the search criterion for the selected query characteristic to the selected predefined search index; selecting items subject to a collection limit based on applying the search criterion to the selected predefined search index, the collection limit limiting the total number of items that are selected; post-filtering the selected items against the database using search criteria of the received query other than the search criterion of the selected query characteristic; and returning a result set for the query, the result set including only items returned from the post-filtering.