13. A method, comprising: obtaining an input record set from a plurality of different data sources, the record set including a plurality of different records, each record including an item identifier that identifies an item that is described by the record, the records being in different forms; comparing the plurality of different records to generate a match result indicative of whether the plurality of different records describe a same item; if the match result indicates that the plurality of different records do not describe the same item, then launching a wide area network (WAN) search using at least a part of at least one of the records; receiving search results; and adding at least some of the search results to the input record set for normalizing and comparing.
13. A method, comprising: obtaining an input record set from a plurality of different data sources, the record set including a plurality of different records, each record including an item identifier that identifies an item that is described by the record, the records being in different forms; comparing the plurality of different records to generate a match result indicative of whether the plurality of different records describe a same item; if the match result indicates that the plurality of different records do not describe the same item, then launching a wide area network (WAN) search using at least a part of at least one of the records; receiving search results; and adding at least some of the search results to the input record set for normalizing and comparing. 19. The method of claim 13 , and further comprising normalizing the plurality of different records into corresponding normalized forms and comparing the plurality of records by comparing he normalized forms.