A networked catalog search, retrieval, and information correlation and matching system is disclosed. The system allows suppliers to publish information in electronic catalogs, structure the information in an object oriented representation distributed across a network of computers, for example, the Internet. The system also enables customers to search and retrieve information on products and suppliers which match dynamically specified customer requirements. Through retrieving compliant HTML pages, a search engine forwards retrieved pages to an object oriented database which sorts received information by the information's internal organization structure. By searching the information as stored in the knowledge base, a user may quickly retrieve the stored information as highly tailored to the user's search strategy. Also, additional tools operate on the stored information so as to, inter alia, organize design trades between selected elements where additional design and selection options are provided to each user. Further, the system supports product creation as formed of constituent parts. These products may then be used as parts to be formed into higher level products.