FEDERATED SEARCH

• US 20090006332A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Laird-McConnell, Thomas M., Patwardhan, Niket K., Mowatt, David, Narula, Puneet, Krishnamoorthy, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Various techniques are disclosed to permit searching several locations with one query. Locations may include web search sites, subscription-only sites, line of business applications, or other searchable data repositories. The query may be modified to provide the required format or other information for each location to perform a search.

Claims

1. A method for searching comprising:

receiving an original query;

selecting one or more locations to search;

mapping the original query to one location of the one or more locations to search;

submitting the mapped query to the one location; and

receiving search results of the mapped query from the one location.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the search results of the mapped query from the one location also include search results from a second location.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting further comprises receiving locations selected from a list of available locations.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting further comprises using triggers to automatically determine appropriate locations to search.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein mapping further comprises replacing a field name in the original query with a different field name in the mapped query.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein mapping further comprises providing authentication information.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the search results in a user interface.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the search results from each selected location is displayed in a different section of the user interface.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the search results from each selected location are merged and displayed together in one section of the user interface.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the one location:

submitting the mapped query to a second location;

receiving search results from the second location; and

returning the search results from the second location.

11. A computer readable medium containing instructions thereon that, when executed, perform the method of claim 1.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of the selected locations includes a system comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive a first mapped query;

a selecting module configured to select locations from which to obtain search results;

a mapping module configured to map a mapped query to a second mapped query appropriate for one of the selected locations;

a submitting module configured to submit the second mapped query to the one of the selected locations; and

a receiving module configured to receive search results from the one of the selected locations.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the receiving module provides a user interface to obtain the original query.

12. A system comprising:

a processor;

a receiving module configured to receive an original query;

a selecting module configured to select locations from which to obtain search results;

a mapping module configured to map an original query to a mapped query appropriate for one of the selected locations;

a submitting module configured to submit mapped query to the one of the selected locations; and

a results receiving module configured to receive search results from the one of the selected locations.

15. A method comprising:

receiving an original search results from a location;

mapping the original search results to an originating software providing mapped search results; and

returning the mapped search results to the originating software.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

receiving a second original search results from a second location;

mapping the second original search results to the originating software providing a second mapped search results; and

returning the second mapped search results to the originating software.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the originating software provides a user interface to display the mapped search results and the second mapped search results.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the user interface displays the mapped search results and the second mapped search results in different areas of a display.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the user interface displays the mapped search results and the second mapped search results the same area of a display.

20. A computer readable medium containing instructions thereon that, when executed, perform the method of claim 16.