FEDERATED COMMUNITY SEARCH

• US 20100023502A1
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Marlow, Keith A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,025,855 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to web searching protocols.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

indexing via a computing platform one or more federated searches in accordance with index criteria;

comparing via said computing platform a query to each index criterion;

matching via said computing platform the query with index criteria; and

providing via said computing platform results from one or more indexed federated searches associated with index criteria associated with the query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a signature associated with each indexed federated search, wherein said comparing a query to each indexed federated search comprises comparing a query to each signature, and wherein said determining the closest match between the query and the indexed federated search comprises determining a closest match between the query and a signature associated with said indexed federated search.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

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

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

offering search results based on a crawler-based search.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said indexing is based at least in part on keywords provided by creators of the federated searches;

and wherein said comparing is based at least in part on keywords provided by a creator of the indexed federated search.

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

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

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said indexing is based at least in part on matching domains of an indexed federated search to domains of a search engine that returns results based on a category path, wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is matched against a category path associated with a crawler-based search.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said offering search results further comprises offering search results based, at least in part, on a ranking based on a usefulness metric of a predetermined federated search.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing at least one set of search results comprises:

retrieving data from all sites associated with a federated search;

extracting weighing factors from the data including at least key words and domains;

creating a table of signatures based on the weighing factors; and

wherein said comparing a query to each indexed federated search comprises;

comparing the query to a signature associated with said federated search; and

wherein determining the closest match between the query and the indexed federated search comprises;

determining the closest match between the query and a signature; and

further comprising;

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

10. An article comprising:

a storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, if executed by a computing platform, are adapted to enable said computing platform to;

index one or more federated searches;

compare a query to each indexed federated search; and

determine a closest match between the query and the indexed federated search.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein said instructions, if executed by said computing platform, further enable the computing platform to:

determine a signature associated with each indexed federated search, wherein said to compare a query to each indexed federated search comprises to compare a query to each signature, and wherein said to determine a closest match between the query and the indexed federated search comprises to determine the closest match between the query and a signature associated with said indexed federated search.

12. The article of claim 10 wherein said instructions, if executed by said computing platform, further enable the computing platform to:

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

13. The article of claim 10 wherein said instructions, if executed by said computing platform, further enable the computing platform to:

index based at least in part on keywords provided by creators of the said federated searches; and

wherein said to compare is based at least in part on comparing keywords provided by a creator of the indexed federated search.

14. The article of claim 10 wherein said instructions, if executed by said computing platform, further enable the computing platform to:

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

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

15. The article of claim 10 wherein said instructions, if executed by said computing platform, further enable the computing platform to:

index based at least in part on matching domains of an indexed federated search to domains of a search engine that returns results based on a category path, wherein the category path of the indexed federated search results is matched against a category path associated with a non-federated search.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a computing platform, said computing platform being adapted to;

index one or more federated searches in accordance with index criteria;

compare a query to each index criterion;

match the query with index criteria; and

provide results from one or more indexed federated searches associated with index criteria associated with the query.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said computing platform is further adapted to:

determine a signature associated with each indexed federated search;

compare said query to each signature; and

determine the closest match as a closest match between the query and a signature associated with said indexed federated search.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said computing platform is further adapted to:

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

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said computing platform is further adapted to:

offer said search results based on a crawler-based search.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said computing platform is further adapted to index based at least in part on keywords provided by creators of the federated searches;

and wherein said comparing is based at least in part on keywords provided by a creator of the indexed federated search.