i am learning and appreciate any comments. my goal is to be able to create a large database that can be searched very fast. I can create a websphere application server node that can access this database but I want to know this. The fastest way for someone to access the database and return many records at a time would be to use a web interface like google rather than sending messages (MQ for example) that that call into a dao layer build records sets and distribute. If i was making adds/updates/deletes, then assured deliver of transactions with MQ is perfect, but db searching?? I would really like some input here as what is the best/fastest search solution. Struts, JSF, web services etc?? thank you.

I think framework such as Struts, JSF, and others do not give you the solution. Maybe what you need is records/list paging. Am I right ?

use the right technology for the job: Database is for storage, as a "Search Engine" is for searching. you should index your database using lucene, and allow users to you website to search information using that.