PROTECTING INFORMATION IN SEARCH QUERIES

• US 20100023509A1
• Filed: 07/20/2009
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kato, Shingo, Adachi, Noritaka, Kawanaka, Shinya, Rudy, Raymond Harry Putra
• Granted Patent: US 9,195,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24535 of sub-queries or views
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A method of protecting information in search queries uses a search apparatus with a user interface that is configured for connection to a computer network that comprises a plurality of search engines on a plurality of servers. The method includes receiving a search query comprising a plurality of keywords; dividing the search query into a number of sub-queries, each sub-query comprising at least one of the keywords; and submitting the sub-queries to different search engines

Claims

1. A method of protecting information in search queries using a search apparatus with a user interface that is configured for connection to a computer network that comprises a plurality of search engines on a plurality of servers, said method comprising:

receiving a search query comprising a plurality of keywords;

dividing the search query into a number of sub-queries, each sub-query comprising at least one of said keywords; and

submitting said sub-queries to different search engines

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting user input through said user interface that identifies at least one keyword or combination of said keywords that is not to be used as a sub-query.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching said keywords in a dictionary and excluding from use as a sub-query any combination of said keywords containing a keyword not found in said dictionary.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a co-occurrence probability for the keywords of each sub-query and excluding from use as a sub-query any combination of keywords having a co-occurrence probability below a threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a co-occurrence probability for the keywords of each sub-query and excluding from use as a sub-query a specific number of keyword combinations having the lowest co-occurrence probability.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving individual search results from each of said search engines, each individual search result comprising a number of hits matching the sub-query submitted to a corresponding search engine.

7. The method of claim 6, in which said individual search results each comprise a listing of web pages.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising filtering said individual search results to exclude listings that do not satisfy said search query.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising integrating said individual search results from said search engines to produce an integrated search result.

10. A search apparatus implemented in a computer, said apparatus comprising a processor programmed to:

receive a search query comprising a plurality of keywords;

divide the search query into a number of sub-queries, each sub-query comprising at least one of said keywords; and

submit said sub-queries to different search engines

11. The search apparatus of claim 10, in which said processor is further programmed to accept user input identifying at least one keyword or combination of said keywords that is not to be used as a sub-query.

12. The search apparatus of claim 10, in which said processor is further programmed to search said keywords in a dictionary and to exclude from use as a sub-query any combination of said keywords containing a keyword not found in said dictionary.

13. The search apparatus of claim 10, in which said processor is further programmed to calculate a co-occurrence probability for the keywords of each sub-query and to exclude from use as a sub-query any combination of keywords having a co-occurrence probability below a threshold.

14. The search apparatus of claim 10, in which said processor is further programmed to calculate a co-occurrence probability for the keywords of each sub-query and to exclude from use as a sub-query a specific number of keyword combinations having the lowest co-occurrence probability.

15. The search apparatus of claim 10, in which said processor is further programmed to receive individual search results from each of said search engines, each individual search result comprising a number of hits matching the sub-query submitted to a corresponding search engine.

16. The search apparatus of claim 15, in which said processor is further programmed to filter said individual search results to exclude listings that do not satisfy said search query.

17. The search apparatus of claim 16, in which said processor is further programmed to integrate search results from each of said search engines to produce an integrated search result.

18. A computer program product for protecting information in search queries, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive a search query comprising a plurality of keywords;

computer readable program code configured to divide the search query into a number of sub-queries, each sub-query comprising at least one of said keywords; and

computer readable program code configured to submit said sub-queries to different search engines.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising computer readable code configured to exclude specific keywords or combinations of keywords from use as a sub-query based.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising computer readable code configured to:

receive individual search results from each of said search engines, each individual search result comprising a number of hits matching the sub-query submitted to a corresponding search engine;

filter said individual search results to exclude listings that do not satisfy said search query; and

integrate search results from each of said search engines to produce an integrated search result.