There is provided a method that includes (a) receiving an inquiry to initiate a search for data for a specific individual, (b) determining, based on the inquiry, a strategy and flexible predictiveness equations to search a reference database, (c) searching the reference database, in accordance with the strategy, for a match to the inquiry; and (d) outputting the match. The method may also output flexible feedback related to the match that reflects inferred quality of the match experience which can be used by an end-user to determine the degree to which the matched entity meets that end-user's quality-based criteria. There is also provided a system that performs the method, and a storage medium that contains instructions that control a processor to perform the method.