Federated community search

• US 10,025,855 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: Marlow, Keith A.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, CAM Y T
• Application Number:
  US12/181,268
• Publication Number:
  US 20100023502A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,641 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to web searching protocols. In a particular implementation, one or more federated searches may be indexed accordance with index criteria. A query may be compared to one or more index criterion. The query may be matched with index criteria. One or more indexed federated searches associated with index criteria associated with the query may be provided.

Claims

1. A method of executing computer instructions on a server computer that includes at least one processor and at least one physical memory, the method comprising:

acquiring the computer instructions from the at least one physical memory;

executing the acquired computer instructions on the at least one processor;

storing in the at least one physical memory any results of the executing of the acquired computer instructions on the at least one processor;

processing, by the server computer, one or more digital signals received from one or more first remote user computing platforms via a communication network, wherein the one or more digital signals comprise identities of a plurality of federated search sources and one or more user-submitted index keywords to indicate content of the plurality of federated search sources, the plurality of federated search sources comprising at least one search source which is uncrawled and not publically available, the plurality of federated search sources further comprising at least one first federated search source and at least one second federated search source, individual ones of the plurality of federated search sources comprising links to multiple different specified sources of electronic digital signal quantities;

indexing, by the server computer, at least one of the plurality of federated search sources to determine index criteria and to determine at least one federated search source of the at least one first federated search source and the at least one second federated search source related to individual index keywords that comprise at least the one or more user-submitted index keywords, wherein the indexing is based at least in part on matching domains of an indexed federated search to domains of a search engine to return results based at least in part on a category path, wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is to be matched against a category path associated with a crawler-based search, and wherein the indexing further comprises;

retrieving, by the server computer, the one or more digital signals comprising the electronic digital signal quantities from sites associated with a federated search;

extracting, by the server computer, weighing factors from the one or more digital signals including at least keywords and the domains; and

creating, by the server computer, a table of a plurality of signatures based at least in part on the weighing factors;

storing, by the server computer, the index criteria in a database in the at least one physical memory;

processing, by the server computer, a query received via the network from a second remote user computing platform after performing the indexing;

executing, by the server computer, a web searching protocol to search the at least one of the plurality of federated search sources;

determining, by the server computer, one or more signatures of the plurality of signatures associated with one or more of the plurality of federated search sources based at least in part on the index criteria;

matching, by the server computer, the query with the determined one or more signatures based, at least in part, on the index criteria to determine and rank one or more of the plurality of federated search sources for the query in accordance with a usefulness metric; and

at least partially in response to a user selection of one or more of the ranked one or more of the plurality of federated search sources, performing, by the server computer, a federated search, and transmitting electrical signals via the communication network to the second remote user computing platform, the electrical signals comprising results including respective links to the one or more ranked federated search sources for the query and at least one displayable graphical indicator of the usefulness metric for individual ones of the one or more ranked federated search sources.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing the acquired computer instructions further comprises:

determining a signature associated with an indexed federated search source;

comparing the query to the signature; and

determining a closer match between the query and the signature associated with the indexed federated search.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the executing the acquired computer instructions further comprises:

offering search results based, at least in part, on the indexed federated search source of the closer match between the query and the signature associated with the indexed federated search source.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the executing the acquired computer instructions further comprises:

offering search results based at least in part on a crawler-based search.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the indexing is based at least in part on matching domains in a federated search to a domain defined by the query;

and wherein comparing is based at least in part on matching domains of a federated search to a domain defined by the query.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the indexing at least one of the plurality of federated search sources comprises:

offering search results based, at least in part, on the indexed federated search of the closer match between the query and the signature associated with the indexed federated search.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the usefulness metric is based at least in part on one or more user ratings of the one or more ranked federated search sources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the multiple different specified sources of electronic digital signal quantities comprises a first source of the electronic digital signal quantities that has not been crawled by a search engine performing the query.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the usefulness metric is based at least in part on one or more user ratings for the one or more ranked federated search sources.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing the query, via the multiple different specified sources of the electronic digital signal quantities, at least in response to receiving a user selection from the second remote user computing platform of the respective links to the one or more ranked federated search sources relating to the query.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple different specified sources of electronic digital signal quantities comprise one or more websites, web pages, or databases.

12. An article comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium storing computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions are executable by at least one processor of at least one local computing device to;

store in at least one physical memory of the at least one local computing device any results to be generated from the execution of the computer instructions;

process one or more digital signals to be received from one or more first remote user computing platforms via a communication network, the one or more digital signals comprise identities of a plurality of federated search sources and one or more user-submitted index keywords to indicate content of the plurality of federated search sources, the plurality of federated search sources comprising at least one search source which is uncrawled and not publically available, the plurality of federated search sources further comprises at least one first federated search source and at least one second federated search source, individual ones of the plurality of federated search sources comprise links to multiple different specified sources of electronic digital signal quantities;

index at least one of the plurality of federated search sources to determine index criteria and to determine at least one federated search source of the at least one first federated search source and the at least one second federated search source to be related to individual index keywords that comprise at least the one or more user-submitted index keywords, wherein the index is to be based at least in part on a match of domains of an indexed federated search to domains of a search engine to return results to be based at least in part on a category path, wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is to be matched against a category path to be associated with a crawler-based search, and wherein the index further comprises;

retrieve, by a server computer, one or more digital signals comprising the electronic digital signal quantities from sites associated with a federated search;

extract, by the server computer, weighing factors from the one or more digital signals including at least keywords and domains; and

create, by the server computer, a table of a plurality of signatures based at least in part on the weighing factors;

store the index criteria in a database of the at least one physical memory;

process a query received via the communication network from a second remote user computing platform after performing the indexing;

execute a web searching protocol to search at least one of the plurality of federated search sources;

determine one or more signatures of the plurality of signatures associated with one or more of the plurality of federated search sources to be based, at least in part, on the index criteria;

match the query with the determined one or more signatures to be based, at least in part, on the index criteria to determine and rank one or more of the plurality of federated search sources for the query in accordance with a usefulness metric; and

at least partially in response to a user selection of one or more of the ranked one or more of the plurality of federated search sources, perform a federated search, and transmit electrical signals via the communication network to the second remote user computing platform, the electrical signals comprising results including respective links to the one or more ranked federated search sources for the query and at least one displayable graphical indicator of the usefulness metric for individual ones of the one or more ranked federated search sources.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to:

determine a signature to be associated with an indexed federated search source, compare a query to the indexed federated search source, and determine a closer match between the query and the indexed federated search source, wherein the determine a closer match comprises a determination of the closer match between the query and the signature to be associated with the indexed federated search source.

14. The article of claim 12 wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to:

determine search results based, at least in part, on the indexed federated search source of a closer match between the query and a signature to be associated with the indexed federated search source.

15. The article of claim 12 wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to:

index based at least in part on matching domains in a indexed federated search source to a domain to be defined in the query; and

wherein comparison of the query is to be based at least in part on matching domains of a federated search source to a domain to be defined in the query.

16. The article of claim 12

wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is to be matched against a category path to be associated with a non-federated search.

17. An apparatus comprising:

at least one local computing device, the at least one local computing device including at least one processor and computer instructions stored in at least one physical memory;

wherein the computer instructions are executable by the at least one processor to;

store in the at least one physical memory of the at least one local computing device any results to be generated from the execution of the computer instructions;

process one or more digital signals to be received from one or more first remote user computing platforms via a communications network, the one or more digital signals comprise identities of a plurality of federated search sources and one or more user-submitted index keywords to indicate content of the plurality of federated search sources, the plurality of federated search sources comprises at least one search source which is uncrawled and not publically available, the plurality of federated search sources further comprises at least one first federated search source and at least one second federated search source, individual ones of the plurality of federated search sources comprise links to multiple different specified sources of electronic digital signal quantities;

index at least one of the plurality of federated search sources to determine index criteria and to determine at least one federated search source of the at least one first federated search source and the at least one second federated search source to be related to individual index keywords that comprise at least the one or more user-submitted index keywords, wherein the index is to be based at least in part on a match of domains of an indexed federated search to domains of a search engine to return results to be based at least in part on a category path, wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is to be matched against a category path to be associated with a crawler-based search, wherein the index further comprises;

retrieve, by a server computer, one or more signals comprising the electronic digital signal quantities from sites associated with a federated search;

extract, by the server computer, weighing factors from the one or more signals including at least key words and domains; and

create, by the server computer, table of a plurality of signatures based at least in part on the weighing factors;

store the index criteria in a database of the at least one physical memory;

execute a web searching protocol to search at least one of the plurality of federated search sources;

determine one or more signatures of the plurality of signatures associated with one or more of the plurality of federated search sources to be based, at least in part, on the index criteria;

process a query to be received via the communication network from a second client computing platform after performance of the index;

match the query with the determined one or more signatures to be based, at least in part, on the index criteria to determine and rank one or more of the plurality of federated search sources for the query in accordance with a usefulness metric; and

at least partially in response to a user selection of the ranked one or more of the plurality of federated search sources, perform a federated search, and transmit electrical signals via the communication network to the second client computing platform, the electrical signals comprise results including respective links to the one or more ranked federated search sources for the query and at least one displayable graphical indicator of the usefulness metric for individual ones of the one or more ranked federated search sources.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the computer instructions are further executable by the at least one local computing device to:

determine a signature to be associated with a particular indexed federated search source;

compare the query to the signature; and

determine a closer match between the query and the signature to be associated with the particular indexed federated search source.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the computer instructions are further executable by the at least one local computing device to:

present the results to be based at least in part on a crawler-based search.