System and method for web searching

• US 20070094241A1
• Filed: 10/26/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daedalus Blue LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kibler, Clare, Elie, Claude, M. Blackwell, Jason, R. Hager, Danny
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A system and method of web searching is provided. The method comprises defining one or more user preferred categories and conducting a search within the one or more user preferred categories based upon search criteria by comparing the search criteria to content information within each of the one or more user preferred categories. The method further includes displaying search results associated with each of the preferred categories which have matching criteria based on the conducted search.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

defining one or more user preferred categories;

conducting a search within the one or more user preferred categories based upon search criteria by comparing the search criteria to content information within each of the one or more user preferred categories; and

displaying search results associated with each of the preferred categories which have matching criteria based on the conducted search.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising editing the one or more user preferred categories.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the editing includes adding or deleting one or more of the one or more user preferred categories.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a number of results associated with each of the one or more user preferred categories.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a user profile and associating the one or more user preferred categories with the user profile.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising expanding the one or more user preferred categories to show sub categories of the one or more user preferred categories.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the one or more user preferred categories in a hierarchical relationship.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying additional taxonomies associated with the search results.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising refining the search by conducting an additional search within the one or more user preferred categories which have matching criteria based on the conducted search with an additional search criteria.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising refining the one or more user preferred categories.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the refining step includes information defined in hierarchical manner.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing fastpath searching operation allowing a user to search only the preferred categories, prior to or after an initial search has been conducted.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the conducting step is a faceted search conducted over a distributed network which includes a database and which is accessed by a workstation to.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining step is based on past user history, user profiles, survey data or explicit instructions.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising a control to search the one or more preferred categories.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more user preferred categories are recorded and automatically added to a list associated with a user.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising creating a user profile which includes a user'"'"'s interests to succinctly provide a basis that defines the one or more user preferred categories.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing a user to search the one or more preferred categories in a single step, even when the categories are from different taxonomies.

19. A method, comprising:

defining favorite categories;

comparing user defined search criteria with information associated with the favorite categories;

retrieving and displaying content information associated with the favorite categories; and

allowing a user to search the favorite categories in a single step for the content information obtained by the comparing step, even when the categories are from different taxonomies.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the favorite categories represent a substantially common categorization scheme.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the categorization scheme includes a hierarchical structure of one or more favorite categories.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the favorite categories include at least one predefined category.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the user profile information contains information of at least one of a user'"'"'s interests.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the favorite categories include an “

edit”

function.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the edit function is at least one of an expand function, a delete function and an add function.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the favorite categories are pre-defined categories, categorized in a hierarchical format to provide specific search focus.

27. The method of claim 19, further comprising providing a content submission tool used to acquire, create, update or delete content information associated with the favorite categories.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising editing the favorite categories by providing a hierarchical categorization scheme.

29. The method of claim 19, further comprising refining the search by selecting a favorite category to delete and any of its lower level relations.

30. A system comprising a server having a database containing data associated with one or more user predefined categories, and at least one of a hardware and software component for searching the database for content information associated with the one or more user predefined categories based upon search criteria, the system compares the search criteria to the content information within each of the one or more user predefined categories and provides the search results to the user by presenting a list of the one or more user predefined categories which have matching categories with the search result, while providing the one or more user predefined categories in a list of taxonomies.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising at least one of a hardware and software component for defining the one or more user predefined categories.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the at least one of a hardware and software component resides on a server provided by a service provider.

33. The system of claim 30, further comprising at least one of a hardware and software component for listing the one or more user predefined categories outside of its provided taxonomies.

34. The system of claim 30, further comprising at least one of a hardware and software component which creates a user profile containing information of at least one of a user'"'"'s interests to create the one or more user predefined categories.

35. The system of claim 30, further comprising an editing tool capable of at least one of expanding, deleting and adding the favorite categories.

36. The system of claim 30, further comprising a content submission tool used to acquire, create, update or delete content information associated with the favorite categories.

37. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

define one or more user preferred categories;

conduct a search within the one or more user preferred categories based upon search criteria by comparing the search criteria to content information within each of the one or more user preferred categories; and

display search results associated with each of the preferred categories which have matching criteria based on the conducted search.

38. A method for deploying an application for web searching, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

defining one or more user preferred categories;

conducting a search within the one or more user preferred categories based upon search criteria by comparing the search criteria to content information within each of the one or more user preferred categories; and

displaying search results associated with each of the preferred categories which have matching criteria based on the conducted search.