The present invention provides a
federated search tool and search methods that consolidate searches to external online accounts of a user and other people that are part of the user's
social network. In some embodiments, the search tool is presented as a single
search box that may appear persistently on the user's desktop display or as a
toolbar embedded within another application. The search tool may be embedded as part of
web page. Embodiments of the present invention may provide the results in a simple real-time display stack or a static
result list, such as a
web page. Blocks in the stack may indicate a result and the context of the result, such as which online account originated the result, whether the result is from a linked external accounts of people associated with the user, pointers to people and groups the user has linked to, an age of the result, and the like. The present invention may also permit the user to search
the Internet generally, such as well known search engines, and to search the contents of their
local machine, such as documents, emails, pictures, and the like. In addition, the present invention allows searches to be performed asynchronously to various linked external online account sites and then provides these results as they arrive.