A method for operating a web service to search one or more data sources, the method including receiving a query directed to a first data source, wherein the first data source defines at least one characteristic of at least one first data object returned by the query, receiving at least one first data object from the first data source in response to querying the first data source, retrieving linked relationships between the at least one first data object and one or more second data objects from a second data source, receiving the one or more second data objects from the second data source in response to querying the second data source, generating a composite data object in response to the received query, the composite data object including the at least one first data object and the one or more second data objects formatted as markup language.