Apparatus and methods for collaboratively searching knowledge databases

• US 6,430,558 B1
• Filed: 08/02/1999
• Issued: 08/06/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tumbleweed Holdings LLC (Equitable IP Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ZEN Tech Incorporated
• Inventors: Delano, Paul A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Homere, Jean R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wassum, Luke S.
• Application Number:
  US09/365,927
• Time in Patent Office: 1,100 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3-5, 707/10, 707/102-104, 345/329-331
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An apparatus and methods are provided for collaboratively searching one or more knowledge databases formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network. The apparatus preferably includes a computer communications network, a plurality of computer servers positioned in communication with the computer communications network for collectively providing at least one knowledge database, a plurality of client-user computer interfaces positioned in communication with the computer communications network for providing user interface access to the computer communications network, and a collaborative searching engine positioned in communication with the computer communications network and accessible through the plurality of client-user computer interfaces for providing collaborative searching with each of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces. The collaborative searching engine including a query searcher for conducting search queries of content of the at least one knowledge database, a search results ranker responsive to the query searcher for providing ranked content search results representative of the relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one user when conducting a search through use at least one of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces, and a search results updater for continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from other users of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

Claims

1. An apparatus for collaboratively searching one or more knowledge databases formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network, the apparatus comprising:

a computer communications network;

a plurality of serving means positioned in communication with the computer communications network for collectively providing at least one knowledge database;

a plurality of client user interfacing means positioned in communication with the computer communications network for providing user interface access to the computer communications network; and

collaborative searching means positioned in communication with the computer communications network and accessible through the plurality of client user interfacing means for providing collaborative searching with each of the plurality of client user interfacing means, said collaborative searching means including collaborative query searching means for conducting search queries of content of the at least one knowledge database, the collaborative query searching means including a topic filter through which to pass the search queries, a memory to store prior search queries, and a relational database responsive to search queries passing through the topic filter and the prior searches stored in memory to relate the filtered search queries to the stored prior searches, search results ranking means responsive to said query searching means for providing ranked collaborative content search results representative of objectively determined relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one program user and at least one other program user of the at least one knowledge database using search queries related to the search query inputted by the at least one program user when conducting a search through use of at least one of the plurality of client user interfacing means, and search results updating means for continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from other users of the plurality of client user interfacing means.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said collaborative searching means further includes search content browsing means for browsing the content of the search results.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said collaborative searching means further includes search recommending means responsive to the plurality of serving means for recommending at least one of content providing, alternative searching, and alternative browsing queries to a user of said collaborative searching means through at least one of the plurality of client user interfacing means.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said collaborative searching means further includes modification notifying means responsive to the plurality of serving means for providing notification of updates to the knowledge database, the updates including at least one of updates from the plurality of serving means, updates from other users conducting additional search queries, and updates to said collaborative searching means.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said query searching means includes information requester registers in communication with said search content browsing means for registering browsing categories and searching criteria and receiving notifications of content that meet the criteria.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the said search results ranking means responsive to said query searching means provides ranked content search results representative of the closeness of a requested search query submitted by a second user subsequent to a search inputted by a first user.

28. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein the search recommending means includes content recommendation populating means for populating the at least one knowledge database with at least one content recommendation provided by an entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

29. An apparatus as defined in claim 28, wherein the content recommendation populating means populates the at least one knowledge database with content recommendations in response to new information being introduced into the entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

30. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein the search recommending means includes content recommendation populating means for populating the at least one knowledge database with content recommendations according to a predetermined schedule.

6. An apparatus for collaboratively searching one or more knowledge databases formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network, the apparatus comprising:

a computer communications network;

a plurality of computer servers positioned in communication with the computer communications network to collectively provide at least one knowledge database;

a plurality of client-user computer interfaces positioned in communication with the computer communications network to provide user interface access to the computer communications network; and

a collaborative searching engine positioned in communication with the computer communications network and accessible through the plurality of client-user computer interfaces for providing collaborative searching with each of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces, the collaborative searching engine including a collaborative query searcher positioned to conduct search queries of content of the at least one knowledge database, the collaborative searcher including a topic filter through which to pass the search queries, a memory to store prior search queries, and a relational database responsive to search queries passing through the topic filter and the prior searches stored in memory to relate the filtered search queries to the stored prior searches, a search results ranker responsive to the query searcher to provide ranked content search results representative of objectively determined relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one program user and at least one other program user of the at least one knowledge database using search queries related to the search query inputted by the at least one program user when conducting a search through use of at least one of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces, and a search results updater for continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from other users of the plurality of client-user interfaces.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said collaborative searching engine further includes a search content browser positioned to browse the content of the search results.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein the collaborative searching engine further includes a search recommender responsive to the plurality of computer servers for recommending at least one of content providing, alternative searching, and alternative browsing queries to a user of the collaborative searching engine through at least one of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the collaborative searching engine further includes modification notifying means responsive to the plurality of serving means for providing notification of updates to the knowledge database, the updates including at least one of updates from the plurality of computer servers, updates from other users conducting additional search queries, and updates to the collaborative searching engine.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein said query searcher includes information requester registers in communication with said search content browser to register browsing categories and searching criteria and to receive notifications of content that meet the criteria.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the search results ranker responsive to the query searcher provides a ranked content search results representative of the closeness of a requested search query submitted by a second user subsequent to a search inputted by a first user.

31. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the search recommender includes an externally-sourced content recommender adapted to supply at least one content recommendation to the at least one knowledge database based on information provided by an entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

32. An apparatus as defined in claim 31, wherein externally-sourced content recommender supplies at least one content recommendation in response to new information being introduced into the entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

33. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the search recommending means includes an externally-sourced content recommender adapted to supply at least one content recommendation to the at least one knowledge database according to a predetermined schedule.

11. A collaborative searching engine for communicating with a computer communications network and accessible through a plurality of client-user computer interfaces for providing collaborative searching with each of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces to one or more knowledge databases formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network, the collaborative searching engine comprising:

collaborative query searching means for conducting search queries of content of at least one knowledge database the collaborative query searching means including a topic filter through which to pass the search queries, a memory to store prior search queries, and a relational database responsive to search queries passing through the topic filter and the prior searches stored in memory to relate the filtered search queries to the stored prior searches;

search results ranking means responsive to said query searching means for providing ranked content search results representative of objectively determined relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one program user and at least one other program user of the at least one knowledge database using search queries related to the search query inputted by the at least one program user when conducting a search through use of at least one of a plurality of client-user computer interfaces; and

search results updating means for continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from other users of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

12. A collaborative searching engine apparatus as defined in claim 11, further comprising search content browsing means for browsing the content of the search results.

13. A collaborative searching engine as defined in claim 12, further comprising search recommending means responsive to a plurality of computer servers for recommending at least one of content providing, alternative searching, and alternative browsing queries to a user of the collaborative searching engine through at least one of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

14. A collaborative searching engine as defined in claim 13, further comprising modification notifying means responsive to the plurality of computer servers for providing notification of updates to the knowledge database, the updates including at least one of updates from the plurality of computer servers, updates from other users conducting additional search queries, and updates to the collaborative searching engine.

15. A collaborative searching engine as defined in claim 14, wherein said query searching means includes information requester registers in communication with said search content browsing means for registering browsing categories and searching criteria and receiving notifications of content that meet the criteria.

23. A collaborative search engine as defined in claim 11, wherein the search results ranking means responsive to said query searching means provides ranked content search results representative of the closeness of a requested search query submitted by a second user subsequent to a search inputted by a first user.

34. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the search recommending means includes content recommendation populating means for populating the at least one knowledge database with at least one content recommendation provided by an entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

35. An apparatus as defined in claim 34, wherein the content recommendation populating means populates the at least one knowledge database with content recommendations in response to new information being introduced into the entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

36. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the search recommending means includes content recommendation populating means for populating the at least one knowledge database with content recommendations according to a predetermined schedule.

16. A method for collaborative searching at least one knowledge database comprising the steps of:

communicating with a computer communications network and through a plurality of client-user computer interfaces; and

collaboratively searching with each of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces one or more knowledge databases formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network, the searching step including the steps of conducting search queries of content of at least one knowledge database using a collaborative searcher including a topic filter through which to pass the search queries, a memory to store prior search queries and a relational database responsive to queries, and a relational database responsive to search queries passing through the topic search filter and the prior searches stored in memory to relate the filtered search queries to the stored prior searches, ranking content search results representative of objectively determined relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one program user and at least one other program user of the at least one knowledge database using search queries related to the search query inputted by the at least one program user when conducting a search through use of at least one of a plurality of client-user computer interfaces, and continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from other users of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the step of browsing the content of the search results.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising the step of recommending at least one of content providing, alternative searching, and alternative browsing queries to a user of the plurality of client-user computer interfaces.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the step of notifying users of updates to the knowledge database, the updates including at least one of updates from the plurality of computer servers and updates from other users conducting additional search queries.

20. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising the steps of registering browsing categories and searching criteria and receiving notifications of content that meet the criteria.

24. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the step of ranking content search results further comprises ranking content search results representative of the relative closeness of a requested search query submitted by a second user subsequent to a search inputted by a first user.

25. A method as defined in claim 20, further including a credit transaction step comprising granting to a recommending user and withdrawing from a searching user a credit based on a predetermined credit bounty when content meeting the criteria is added to content search results.

26. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the credit transaction is performed when a recommendation is submitted.

27. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the credit transaction is performed after a searching user approves the recommendation.

37. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the step of recommending at least one content recommendation based on information provided by an entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

38. An apparatus as defined in claim 37, wherein the step of recommending at least one content recommendation based on information provided by a system positioned externally from the computer communication network is preformed in response to new information being introduced into the entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

39. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the step of recommending at least one content recommendation according to a predetermined schedule.

40. A method as defined in claim 39, wherein the at least one content recommendation is based on information provided by an entity positioned externally from the collaborative searching means.

41. A method as defined in claim 18, wherein the step of recommending includes submitting and accepting a search topic and a recommender-supplied content or content link.

42. A method as defined in claim 41, wherein the step of recommending further includes validating the search topic and recommender-supplied content or content link based on a determination of the correctness and completeness of the search topic and recommender-supplied content or content link.

43. A method as defined in claim 42, wherein the step of recommending further includes designating an error when the search topic or recommender-supplied content or content link, defining a first submission, is determined to be incorrect or incomplete, providing a method user a notification of the error, and prompting the method user to provide a second submission of a search topic or recommender-supplied content or content link.

44. A computer program stored in a memory medium for use in collaboratively searching at least one knowledge database formed by a combination of databases from a global computer network, the program comprising:

collaborative query searching means for conducting search queries of content of the at least one knowledge database, the collaborative query searching means including a topic filter through which to pass the search queries a memory to store prior search queries, and a relational database responsive to search queries passing through the topic filter and the prior searches stored in memory to relate the filtered search queries to the stored prior searches;

search results ranking means responsive to said query searching means for providing ranked content search results representative of the relative closeness of a requested search query to a search inputted by at least one program user when conducting a search through use of one of a plurality of user interfacing means in communication with the processor; and

search results updating means for continuously updating the content search results responsive to input from at least one other user of the plurality of user interfacing means.