The compiled query information is compared against the index. The engine returns XML that includes the resulting matching products or statements, taking constraints into account, along with categorization, spelling, and query feedback information specified in the request.

The results are sorted in relevance order by default, but this behavior can be changed using request parameters. The results can be grouped to reduce duplication, and you can apply paging to prevent slowing down your site with large result lists. See the Paging Search Results chapter of this guide for information.