11. A method of operating a search system, the method comprising: provisioning a device to execute a copy of a selected mobile application selected from among a plurality of mobile applications; extracting content and metadata from a plurality of states of the copy of the selected mobile application executing on the device; identifying search input states within the plurality of states of the selected mobile application, wherein identifying the search input states is performed based on a first set of heuristics, wherein the first set of heuristics includes recognition of user-visible search indicia from the extracted content and metadata of the selected mobile application and recognition of items of the extracted metadata of the selected mobile application that correlate with search functionality; identifying, for each of the search input states of the selected mobile application, necessary input parameters for a search function corresponding to the search input state; storing a record for each identified search function in the selected mobile application, wherein each record includes: a navigation path within the selected mobile application to reach a search input state of the corresponding search function, an indication of input parameters required to be supplied to the corresponding search function, and a mapping of the input parameters to user interface widgets of the search input state; and in response to a query, (i) identifying a first search function record from based on the query, (ii) within a first mobile application corresponding to the first search function record, navigating to the search input state of the first search function record according to the navigation path of the first search function record, (iii) based on parameters specified by the query, selectively performing the search function of the first search function record in the first mobile application, (iv) scraping content from a resulting search results state, and (v) presenting the scraped content to a user.
11. A method of operating a search system, the method comprising: provisioning a device to execute a copy of a selected mobile application selected from among a plurality of mobile applications; extracting content and metadata from a plurality of states of the copy of the selected mobile application executing on the device; identifying search input states within the plurality of states of the selected mobile application, wherein identifying the search input states is performed based on a first set of heuristics, wherein the first set of heuristics includes recognition of user-visible search indicia from the extracted content and metadata of the selected mobile application and recognition of items of the extracted metadata of the selected mobile application that correlate with search functionality; identifying, for each of the search input states of the selected mobile application, necessary input parameters for a search function corresponding to the search input state; storing a record for each identified search function in the selected mobile application, wherein each record includes: a navigation path within the selected mobile application to reach a search input state of the corresponding search function, an indication of input parameters required to be supplied to the corresponding search function, and a mapping of the input parameters to user interface widgets of the search input state; and in response to a query, (i) identifying a first search function record from based on the query, (ii) within a first mobile application corresponding to the first search function record, navigating to the search input state of the first search function record according to the navigation path of the first search function record, (iii) based on parameters specified by the query, selectively performing the search function of the first search function record in the first mobile application, (iv) scraping content from a resulting search results state, and (v) presenting the scraped content to a user. 16. The method of claim 11 further comprising: randomly selecting user interface elements within the selected mobile application for actuation; and extracting content and metadata from each state encountered as a result of the actuation of the randomly-selected user interface elements.