In a search system in which a plurality of first devices which store multimedia contents, a plurality of second devices which store attribute information on multimedia contents and have a search function of searching for the multimedia contents on the basis of the attribute information, and a third device which stores information on the respective second devices and selects, from the plurality of second devices, a device caused to execute search based on a search instruction received from the user terminal are connected to each other via a network, the third device receives a search instruction from the user terminal, and selects, from the plurality of second devices on the basis of the search instruction, a device caused to execute search based on the search instruction. The third device collects and integrates search results based on the search instruction, from the selected second device. The third device transmits the integrated search result to the user terminal.