8. Apparatus for managing federated search results in a heterogeneous environment comprising: a browser program for receiving a user-entered search term and submitting the search term to multiple selected search engines; a federated search framework program for gathering search results from each of the selected search engines; and for generating a search ring including a respective ring section to represent search results from each respective one of the selected search engines for enabling the user to view search results from the selected search engines; generating a plurality of concentric circles within the generated search ring to indicate priority statistics for each of the selected search engines including a pair of inner concentric circles indicating set numbers of user selected prioritized results and an outer ring including a number of returns from each of the selected search engines; and generating a user-selected control within each said concentric circle portion of each said ring section; each said generated user-selected control for selecting search results to be returned for each of the selected search engines; and said browser program and said federated search framework program embodied on a computer-readable medium; said computer-readable medium consisting one of a floppy disk, a hard disk, a high capacity read only memory in the form of an optically read compact disk or CD-ROM, a DVD, a tape, a read only memory (ROM), and a random access memory (RAM).
8. Apparatus for managing federated search results in a heterogeneous environment comprising: a browser program for receiving a user-entered search term and submitting the search term to multiple selected search engines; a federated search framework program for gathering search results from each of the selected search engines; and for generating a search ring including a respective ring section to represent search results from each respective one of the selected search engines for enabling the user to view search results from the selected search engines; generating a plurality of concentric circles within the generated search ring to indicate priority statistics for each of the selected search engines including a pair of inner concentric circles indicating set numbers of user selected prioritized results and an outer ring including a number of returns from each of the selected search engines; and generating a user-selected control within each said concentric circle portion of each said ring section; each said generated user-selected control for selecting search results to be returned for each of the selected search engines; and said browser program and said federated search framework program embodied on a computer-readable medium; said computer-readable medium consisting one of a floppy disk, a hard disk, a high capacity read only memory in the form of an optically read compact disk or CD-ROM, a DVD, a tape, a read only memory (ROM), and a random access memory (RAM). 9. Apparatus for managing federated search results as recited in claim 8 wherein said federated search framework program creates a graphical representation for each of the selected search engines.