Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-07
2003-10-21
Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C709S231000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06636854
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and system for operating a database. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for database and/or file accessing and searching.
2. Description of Related Art
The amount of Internet content continues to grow rapidly and to outpace the ability of search engines to index the exploding amount of information. The largest search engines cannot keep up with the growth as it has been estimated that search engines only index about 5% to 30% of the information content on the Web. Hence, at the current time, the majority of Web content is not classified or indexed by any search engine.
There are currently two broad categories of systems which provide the service of categorizing and locating information on the Web: (1) search engines that return direct hits to sites containing data that match inputted queries, such as AltaVista; (2) Web portals that organize the information into categories and directories, such as Yahoo!. These systems operate using a traditional client-server model with packet-switched data interchange.
Recently, the traditional Web client-server paradigm has been challenged by distributed file-sharing systems that support a peer-to-peer model for exchanging data. In peer-to-peer networks, each computer platform, or node, can operate as a hub, i.e., each node has both client functionality and server functionality. Each node has a list of addresses, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, of several other nodes, or “peer nodes”. These nodes can directly communicate with each other without a central or intermediate server.
Nodes within a peer-to-peer network form a distributed file-sharing system in which the nodes act cooperatively to form a distributed search engine. When a user at a node enters a search query, the search query is copied and sent to its list of peer nodes. Each peer node searches its own databases in an attempt to satisfy the search query. Each node copies the query to each node in its list of peer nodes while observing a time-to-live value in the query message. If a resulting query hit is made, then the node returns some type of query results to the originating node. The search quickly fans out amongst a large number of nodes, which provides a useful manner for finding new content that has not yet been indexed by the large search engines.
Since the Web is a dynamic environment where content is constantly being added, updated, and changed, it is very difficult for the search engines to be up-to-date. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system for augmenting traditional searches of Internet-based content. It would be particularly advantageous to use aspects of peer-to-peer networks to assist in obtaining relevant search results.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product are presented for augmenting conventional search engine results with peer-to-peer search results. Rather than relying solely on an index search in a database that has only indexed a minor portion of the entire World Wide Web, a server-based, peer-to-peer search is initiated in conjunction with the index search. The results from both search processes can be combined so that the user receives an augmented search result with more information than a search result from either process by itself. The entities that are involved in the search can also establish financially rewarding relationships. The server operator agrees to share a percentage of its revenue with peer-to-peer nodes as an incentive to join its registered set of root nodes and expand its peer-to-peer connections. The identified sources of information that provided the search hits can be used by the operator of the search engine in a compensation transaction. While these compensation transactions may be monetary in nature, other compensation schemes may be used, such as reward program points, coupons, micropayments, cashbacks, rebates, frequent flyer miles, etc.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6081518 (2000-06-01), Bowman-Amuah
patent: 6336138 (2002-01-01), Caswell et al.
patent: 6477580 (2002-11-01), Bowman-Amuah
patent: 6529909 (2003-03-01), Bowman-Amuah
Matei, R.; Iamnitchi, A.; Foster, P.; Mapping the Gnutella network Internet Computing, IEEE, vol.: 6 Issue: 1 , Jan./Feb. 2002 Page(s): 50-57.*
Ripeanu, M.;Peer-to-peer architecture case study: Gnutella network Peer-to-Peer Computing, 2001. Proceedings. First International Conference on , Aug. 2001 Page(s): 99-100.*
Hibbard, “Can peer-to-peer grow up?”,Red Herring, Dec. 4, 2000.
Heltzel, “Search In Progress”,Business 2.0, Sep. 12, 2000.
“The Gnutella Protocol”, http://gnutella.wego.com, Jul. 2, 2000.
“Gnutella Support”, http://gnutella.wego.com, Dec. 31, 1999.
“Cap'n Bry's gnutella search”, http:capnbry.dyndns.org/gnutella/protocol.php, no date given.
Dutta Rabindranath
French Steven Michael
Janakiraman Janani
Burwell Joseph R.
Leeuwen Leslie A. Van
Mizrahi Diane D.
LandOfFree
Method and system for augmenting web-indexed search engine... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and system for augmenting web-indexed search engine..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and system for augmenting web-indexed search engine... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3151264