Clustering

The listing of only one page from each web site in a search engine or directory's list of search results. This avoids occupation of all the top results by a small number of web sites and makes the list of results clearer and more useful to the user.

In search results the listings from any individual site are typically limited to a certain number and grouped together to make the search results appear neat and organized and to ensure diversity amongst the top ranked results. Clustering can also refer to a technique which allows search engines to group hubs and authorities on a specific topic together to further enhance their value by showing their relationships. See also Google Touchgraph - interesting web application that shows the relationship between sites Google returns as being related to a site you enter.

Connecting two or more computers together in such a way that they appear to be a single computing resource. Clustering is used for parallel processing, load balancing, and fault tolerance. Clustering is a popular strategy for implementing grid computing, since it is relatively easy to add new CPUs simply by adding a new server or blade to the overall cluster. Clusters are typically transparent to users and applications.

employing multiple computers, storage devices, and redundant interconnections, to form what appears to data consumers as a single, highly- available system, for load balancing and business continuity.