Distributed network search engine

Details Distributed network search engine Distributed network search engine

1999-12-06

2002-12-03

Rones, Charles L. (Department: 2175)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S217000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06490575

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved method and system for accessing a network database, and in particular to a method and system for efficiently searching a distributed, hierarchical network database, such as the World Wide Web (WWW). More particularly, the present invention relates to improving network search efficiency by distributing search engine functionality via links among various public or private data networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network Access to Information
The development of computerized information resources, such as the Internet, allows users of data-processing systems to link with other servers and networks, and thus retrieve vast amounts of electronic information heretofore unavailable in an electronic medium. The term “Internet” is an abbreviation for “Internetwork,” and refers commonly to the collection of networks and gateways that utilize the TCP/IP suite of protocols, which are well-known in the art of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for “Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol,” and is a software protocol developed by the Department of Defense for communication between computers. The Internet can be described as a system of geographically distributed computer networks interconnected by computers executing networking protocols that allow users to interact and share information over the networks. Because of such wide-spread information sharing, the Internet has thus far generally evolved into an “open” system for which developers can design software applications for performing specialized operations or services, essentially without restriction.
Electronic information transferred between data-processing networks is usually presented in hypertext, a metaphor for presenting information in a manner in which text, images, sounds, and actions become linked together in a complex non-sequential Web of associations that permit the user to “browse” or “navigate” through related topics, regardless of the presented order of the topics. These links are often established by both the author of a hypertext document and by the user, depending on the intent of the hypertext document. For example, traveling among links to the word “iron” in an article displayed within a graphical user interface in a data-processing system might lead the user to the periodic table of the chemical elements (i.e., linked by the word “iron”), or to a reference to the use of iron in weapons in Europe in the Dark Ages. The term “hypertext” was coined in the 1960s to describe documents, as presented by a computer, that express the nonlinear structure of ideas, in contrast to the linear format of books, film, and speech.
The term “hypermedia,” on the other hand, more recently introduced, is nearly synonymous with “hypertext” but focuses on the nontextual components of hypertext, such as animation, recorded sound, and video. Hypermedia is the integration of graphics, sound, video, or any combination thereof into a primarily associative system of information storage and retrieval. Hypermedia, as well as hypertext, especially in an interactive format where choices are controlled by the user, is structured around the idea of offering a working and learning environment that parallels human thinking—that is, an environment that allows the user to make associations between topics rather than move sequentially from one to the next, as in an alphabetic list. Hypermedia, as well as hypertext topics, are thus linked in a manner that allows the user to jump from one subject to other related subjects during a search for information. Hyper-link information is contained within hypermedia and hypertext documents, which allow a user to move back to “original” or referring network sites by the mere “click” (i.e., with a mouse or other pointing device) of the hyper-linked topic.
A typical networked system that utilizes hypertext and hypermedia conventions follows a client/server architecture. The “client” is a member of a class or group that uses the services of another class or group to which it is not related. Thus, in computing, a client is a process (i.e., roughly a program or task) that requests a service provided by another program. The client process utilizes the requested service without having to “know” any working details about the other program or the service itself. In a client/server architecture, particularly a networked system, a client is usually a computer that accesses shared network resources provided by another computer system (i.e., a server or Internet Service Provider (ISP)).
A request by a user for news or other information can be sent by a client application program to a server. A server is typically a remote computer system accessible over the Internet or other telecommunications medium. The server scans and searches for raw (e.g., unprocessed) information sources (e.g., newswire feeds or newsgroups). Based upon such requests by the user, the server presents filtered electronic information as server responses to the client process. The client process may be active in a first computer system communicating with the server process which is active in a second computer system, over a telecommunications medium, thus providing distributed functionality and allowing multiple clients to take advantage of the information-gathering capabilities of the server.
Client and server communicate with one another utilizing the functionality provided by Hypertext-Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The World Wide Web (WWW) or, simply, the “Web,” includes those servers adhering to this standard (i.e., HTTP) which are accessible to clients via a computer or data-processing system network address such as a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The network address can be referred to as a Universal Resource Locator address. The client and server may be coupled to one another via Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or TCP/IP connections for high-capacity communication. Active within the client is a first process, known as a “browser,” which establishes the connection with the server and presents information to the user. The server itself executes corresponding server software which presents information to the client in the form of HTTP responses. The HTTP responses correspond to “Web pages” constructed from a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), or other server-generated data. Each Web page can also be referred to simply as a “page.”
Conventional Search Engine Infrastructure
The evolution of personal computers over the last decade has accelerated the Web and Internet toward useful everyday applications. The graphical portion of the World Wide Web itself is usually stocked with more than twenty-two million “pages” of content, with over one million new pages added every month. Readily accessible computer software applications such as Internet “search engines” provide a means for Internet users to track down sites at which information on a topic of interest can be found. A person may type in a subject or key word which the search engine utilizes to locate a list of pertinent network sites (i.e., Web sites) and Web pages. Thus, with “home pages” published by thousands of companies, universities, government agencies, museums, and municipalities, the Internet can be an invaluable information retrieval resource. The market for Internet access and related applications is expanding at an explosive pace.
All search engine applications available today are equipped with a search-and-find facility that is accessed when a user types in a requested search item and “clicks” on the application's ‘Search’ button. The data sought may potentially be stored at as many as tens of thousands of Web pages within thousands of network sites. Each of these Web pages may include hypertext links which point to other sites and/or pages at which related information may be found. The process of searching or browsing the Web is therefore an extremely time consuming and computation intensive multiple recursive process possible covering many thousands of possible Web sites and

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