Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-07
2001-11-13
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317741
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to ranking records of a database, and, more particularly, to a technique for ranking records of a database located during a search of an index to the database performed in response to a query received from a user.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the prior art, it has been well known that computer systems can be used to index databases, and to search the index to locate records qualified by queries. In recent years, a unique distributed database has emerged in the form of the World-Wide-Web (Web). The database records of the Web are in the form of pages accessible via the Internet. Here, tens of millions of pages are accessible by anyone having a communications link to the Internet.
The pages are dispersed over millions of different computer systems all over the world. Users of the Internet constantly desire to locate specific pages containing information of interest. The pages can be expressed in any number of different character sets such as English, French, German, Spanish, Cyrillic, Kanakata, and Mandarin. In addition, the pages can include specialized components, such as embedded “forms,” executable programs, JAVA applets, and hypertext.
Moreover, the pages can be constructed using various formatting conventions, for example, ASCII text, Postscript files, html files, and Acrobat files. The pages can include links to multimedia information content other than text, such as audio, graphics, and moving pictures.
Search engines have been provided to allow users to locate Web pages of interest. These search engines typically have a query interface where the users specify terms and operators which they want to use to qualify pages.
There are a number of problems with presenting pages located by searching an index to the Web. First, the number of pages accessible through the Web is very large, so the number of qualifying pages can also be large. In addition, many Web users are unsophisticated, so there is a large likelihood that queries will be loosely specified, thereby yielding many pages which may not be of interest to the users. The number of qualifying pages may number in the tens of thousands.
It is desired to present search results in a usable manner so that users are not burdened with perusing all qualifying records.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a technique for ranking records of a database is provided. The database records to be ranked are located during a search of an index to the database performed in response to a query received from a user. The index has a plurality of index entries, wherein each index entry has a weight. The query has a plurality of query terms, wherein each query term corresponds to an index entry. In a preferred embodiment, the technique is realized by scoring each located record according to the number of times portions of information corresponding to each query term occur in each record and the weight of each index entry corresponding to each occurring query term. The score and an identifier of each located record are then stored in a respective entry of a ranking list. The ranking list has a limit on the number of entries that are stored therein. In response to the ranking list reaching the limit, it is determined if any records yet to be located may achieve a score that is higher than the score of any of the records already located and stored in the ranking list based upon query terms corresponding to index entries having a low weight. If not, the index is searched using query terms corresponding to index entries having weights higher than the low weight.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, each index entry has a word entry corresponding a unique portion of information of the database. In such a case, the weight to each index entry is beneficially assigned according to a difference between the number of records indexed and the number of records including the unique portion of information corresponding to the word entry of the index entry.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention, the entries of the ranking list are beneficially ordered according to the scores. The information associated with each located record may then beneficially be provided to the user in the order of the ranking list. For example, the provided information associated with each located record may be the score of each located record and/or the identifier of each located record.
The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof as shown in the appended drawings. While the present invention is described below with reference to preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fields of use, which are within the scope of the present invention as disclosed and claimed herein, and with respect to which the present invention could be of significant utility.
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AltaVista Company
Amsbury Wayne
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