Search engine

• US 20080010263A1
• Filed: 10/06/2006
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Executive Development Corp.
• Original Assignee: Executive Development Corp.
• Inventors: Morton, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,135,708 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention may include a method for searching data files using different search engines, each of which produces different search results. The different search results may then be combined to produce additional search results that represent the relevance of the data files. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one storage device containing instructions that if executed enable the system to;

search a first data file for a first taxonomy item using a first search engine to produce a first relevance rating;

search the first data file for the first taxonomy item using a second search engine to produce a second relevance rating;

generate a third relevance ranking based on the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking;

search a second data file for a first taxonomy item using the first search engine to produce a fourth relevance rating;

search the second data file for the first taxonomy item using the second search engine to produce a fifth relevance rating;

generate a sixth relevance ranking based on the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking;

produce search results for the first data file and the second data file based on the third relevance ranking and the sixth relevance ranking; and

a processor coupled to the at least one storage device to execute the instructions.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the third relevance ranking is based on the average of the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

2. A method comprising:

obtaining a first relevance ranking for a data file using a first search engine;

obtaining a second relevance ranking for the data file using a second search engine;

obtaining a third relevance ranking based on the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking; and

storing the data file and the third relevance ranking for future use.

3. The method of claim 2 including obtaining the third relevance ranking based on the average of the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

4. The method of claim 2 including:

obtaining a fourth relevance ranking for an additional data file using the first search engine;

obtaining a fifth relevance ranking for the additional data file using the second search engine;

obtaining a sixth relevance ranking based on the fourth relevance ranking and the fifth relevance ranking; and

producing search results for the data file and the additional data file based on the third relevance ranking and the sixth relevance ranking.

5. The method of claim 2 including:

receiving a first user-controllable weighting factor for the first relevance ranking;

receiving a second user-controllable weighting factor for the second relevance ranking; and

obtaining the third relevance ranking further based on the first user-controllable weighting factor and the second user-controllable weighting factor.

6. The method of claim 2 including basing the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking on a first taxonomy item.

7. The method of claim 2 including basing the first relevance ranking on a first taxonomy item and the second relevance ranking on a second taxonomy item.

8. The method of claim 2 including normalizing the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

9. The method of claim 2 including obtaining the third relevance ranking only if the first relevance ranking satisfies a threshold.

10. A method comprising:

obtaining a first relevance ranking for a first data file using a first search engine;

obtaining a second relevance ranking for a second data file using a second search engine;

organizing the first and second data files based on the first and second relevance rankings; and

storing the first and second data files for later use.

11. The method of claim 10 including normalizing the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

12. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

obtain a first relevance ranking for a data file using a first search engine;

obtain a second relevance ranking for the data file using a second search engine;

obtain a third relevance ranking based on the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking; and

store the third relevance ranking for future use.

13. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to obtain the third relevance ranking based on the average of the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

14. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to:

obtain a fourth relevance ranking for an additional data file using the first search engine;

obtain a fifth relevance ranking for the additional data file using the second search engine;

obtain a sixth relevance ranking based on the fourth relevance ranking and the fifth relevance ranking; and

produce search results for the data file and the additional data file based on the third relevance ranking and the sixth relevance ranking.

15. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to:

receive a first user-controllable weighting factor for the first relevance ranking;

receive a second user-controllable weighting factor for the second relevance ranking; and

obtain the third relevance ranking further based on the first user-controllable weighting factor and the second user-controllable weighting factor.

16. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to base the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking on a first taxonomy item.

17. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to base the first relevance ranking on a first taxonomy item and the second relevance ranking on a second taxonomy item.

18. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to normalize the first relevance ranking and the second relevance ranking.

19. The article of claim 12, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to obtain the third relevance ranking only if the first relevance ranking satisfies a relevancy threshold.