Methods and systems for structuring event data in a database for location and retrieval

• US 20050223027A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lawrence, Stephen R., Khan, Omar Habib
• Application Number:
  US10/815,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20050223027A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/901 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures for retrieval from the web G06F16/951

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for configuring event data representing activity within a computer, which allows that article to be more readily accessed by a search engine. In one embodiment, an event associated with an article is captured, wherein the event comprises event data, the event is indexed, a related event object is created related to the event, wherein the related event object comprises a set of one or more related events, and the related event object is associated with the one or more related events.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

capturing an event associated with an article, wherein the event comprises event data;

indexing the event;

creating a related event object related to the event, wherein the related event object comprises a set of one or more related events; and

associating the related event object and the one or more related events.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the related event object and storing at least a portion of the event data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the related event object is stored at a first location within a data store.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least a portion of the event data is stored at a second location within the data store.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is captured in real-time and indexing the event occurs close in time to capturing the event.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is a historical event and indexing the event is delayed in time after occurrence of the event.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the article is associated with a client application and the related event object comprises a list of different events associated with the article.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the article comprises a web page and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising accesses to a URL for the web page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the article comprises an email message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising email messages in an email thread.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the article comprises an instant messenger message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising instant messenger messages in a conversation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the article comprises a word processing document and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising at least some of load, save and print events associated with the word processing file.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a second level related event object comprising a set of one or more related event objects; and

providing a pointer between the second level related event object and the one or more related events objects.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the article is associated with a client application and the related event object comprises a list of different events associated with the article, and the second level related event object comprises a list of related event objects comprising articles associated with the client application associated with a specific directory.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the article comprises a web page and the related event object comprises accesses to a URL for the web page associated with a website, and the second level related event object comprises a list of related events objects comprising accesses to URLs associated with the website.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the article comprises an instant messenger message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising instant messenger messages in a conversation, and the second level related events object comprises a list of related event objects comprising instant message conversations associated with a particular user.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein the first location within the data store comprises a database.

17. The method of claim 4, wherein the second location within the data store comprises a repository.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after creating the related event object:

capturing at least one second event associated with the article;

indexing the second event;

determining that the second event relates to the related event object;

creating a pointer between the second event and related event object; and

updating the related event object to record the second event.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one second event comprises a plurality of second events, the method further comprising:

serially repeating the steps of capturing, indexing, determining, creating and updating for each additional second event.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving a search query;

retrieving events relevant to the search query;

retrieving related event objects having related event object data for the relevant events; and

ranking the relevant events based at least in part on the event data and the related event object data.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a search query;

retrieving events relevant to the search query;

retrieving related event objects having related event object data for the relevant events; and

outputting the relevant events based at least in part on the event data and the related event object data.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving updated event data for the event and associating the updated event data with the event.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein a fingerprint of the event data is computed.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the fingerprint is computed by analyzing text associated with the event.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the fingerprint is computed by analyzing a location and time associated with the event.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the fingerprint is used to determine if the event is a duplicate event that has already been indexed.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the event is not indexed if the event is determined to be a duplicate event and access statistics associated with the related event object are updated.

28. A computer-readable medium containing program code, comprising:

program code for capturing an event associated with an article, wherein the event comprises event data;

program code for indexing the event;

program code for creating a related event object related to the event, wherein the related event object comprises a set of one or more related events; and

program code for associating the related event object and the one or more related events.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising program code for storing the related event object and storing at least a portion of the event data.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the related event object is stored at a first location within a data store.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein at least a portion of the event data is stored at a second location within the data store.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the event is captured in real-time and indexing the event occurs close in time to capturing the event.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the event is a historical event and indexing the event is delayed in time after occurrence of the event.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the article is associated with a client application and the related event object comprises a list of different events associated with the article.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the article comprises a web page and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising accesses to a URL for the web page.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the article comprises an email message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising email messages in an email thread.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the article comprises an instant messenger message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising instant messenger messages in a conversation.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the article comprises a word processing document and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising at least some of load, save and print events associated with the word processing file.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising:

program code for creating a second level related event object comprising a set of one or more related event objects; and

program code for providing a pointer between the second level related event object and the one or more related events objects.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the article is associated with a client application and the related event object comprises a list of different events associated with the article, and the second level related event object comprises a list of related event objects comprising articles associated with the client application associated with a specific directory.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the article comprises a web page and the related event object comprises accesses to a URL for the web page associated with a website, and the second level related event object comprises a list of related events objects comprising accesses to URLs associated with the website.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the article comprises an instant messenger message and the related event object comprises a list of events comprising instant messenger messages in a conversation, and the second level related events object comprises a list of related event objects comprising instant message conversations associated with a particular user.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the first location within the data store comprises a database.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the second location within the data store comprises a repository.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising, after creating the related event object:

program code for capturing at least one second event associated with the article;

program code for indexing the second event;

program code for determining that the second event relates to the related event object;

program code for creating a pointer between the second event and related event object; and

program code for updating the related event object to record the second event.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 45, wherein the at least one second event comprises a plurality of second events, further comprising:

program code for serially repeating the steps of capturing, indexing, determining, creating and updating for each additional second event.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising program code for receiving a search query;

program code for retrieving events relevant to the search query;

program code for retrieving related event objects having related event object data for the relevant events; and

program code for ranking the relevant events based at least in part on the event data and the related event object data.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising

program code for receiving a search query;

program code for retrieving events relevant to the search query;

program code for retrieving related event objects having related event object data for the relevant events; and

program code for outputting the relevant events based at least in part on the event data and the related event object data.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising program code for receiving updated event data for the event and associating the updated event data with the event.

50. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein a fingerprint of the event data is computed.

51. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, wherein the fingerprint is computed by analyzing text associated with the event.

52. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, wherein the fingerprint is computed by analyzing a location and time associated with the event.

53. The computer-readable medium of claim 50, wherein the fingerprint is used to determine if the event is a duplicate event that has already been indexed.

54. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the event is not indexed if the event is determined to be a duplicate event and access statistics associated with the related event object are updated.

55. A method, comprising:

capturing an event associated with an article, wherein the event comprises event data;

indexing the event;

creating a related event object related to the event, the related event object comprising a set of one or more related events;

providing a pointer between the related event object and the one or more related events;

creating a second level related events object comprising a set of one or more related event objects; and

providing a pointer between the second level related event object and the one or more related events objects; and

storing the related event object and at least a portion of the event data.