I have a general question: Is random search a heuristic or a metaheuristic. Actually, as far as I understand, metaheuristics define a general principle to approximately solving an optimization problem that is applicable to a big variety of problems. Thus, I would infer, that random search is also a metaheuristic, as it can be applied to (almost?) every optimization problem. I would argue that in a nuthshell, it is not really different from evolutionary algorithms or particle swarm optimization. All of the don't make use of problem-specific characteristics as a heuristic usually does.
Edit: By random search I am refering to a method that just randomly samples a fixed number of points in the solution space and at the end uses the best solution after evaluating all those solutions.
What is your take on this?