Systems and methods for performing crawl searches and index searches

• US 6,704,722 B2
• Filed: 11/17/1999
• Issued: 03/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Wang Baldonado, Michelle Q.
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): PANNALA, SATHYANARAYA R
• Application Number:
  US09/442,339
• Publication Number:
  US 20020147880A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,574 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-10, 715/513
• 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 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein allow a user to perform localized searching from a standard web browser. In particular, the systems and methods of this invention use a two-prong approach to accomplish both a dynamic breadth-first crawl search and a contextualize index search to generate search results. The search results are then assembled in a unified results page and displayed to a user.

Claims

1. A system that performs an index search and a crawl search on a distributed network comprising:

a crawl search circuit that performs a crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within a context; and

an index search circuit that performs an index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword,

the index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword being performed in parallel with the crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within the context.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a browser interface that allows a user to navigate through a distributed network.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the index search and the crawl search are initiated through the selection of a search tool associated with the browser interface.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query development circuit that forwards the at least one keyword and the context information received from a browser interface to the crawl search circuit and the index search circuit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a query development circuit retrieves the context information from the browser interface.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a result development circuit that assembles results of the crawl search and the index search.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a display device that displays the assembled results of the crawl search and the index search.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the index search includes the context in its search of the at least one index.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the context is at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), an Internet Protocol address (IP address), a File Transfer Protocol address (FTP address), a directory, a domain name or a universal resource name.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one query also comprises one or more Boolean operands.

11. A method that performs an index search and a crawl search on a distributed network comprising:

performing a crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within a context; and

performing an index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword,

the index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword being performed in parallel with the crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within the context.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising assembling results of the crawl search and the index search.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising adding to a result list the context matching results of the crawl search and the index search.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising adding to a crawl queue the contexts corresponding to one or more links found during the crawl search.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the context is added to the crawl queue if the context is within a crawl boundary.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising detecting the context based on a user'"'"'s location within a distributed network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising editing the detected context.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising defining the breadth of the crawl search.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying the results of the crawl search and the index search.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the context is at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), an Internet Protocol address (IP address), a File Transfer Protocol address (FTP address), a directory, a domain name or a universal resource name.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one query also comprises one or more Boolean operands.

22. An information storage medium that performs an index search and a crawl search on a distributed network comprising:

information that performs a crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within a context; and

information that performs an index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword,

the index search of at least one index for the at least one keyword being performed in parallel with the crawl search in real-time for at least one keyword within the context.

23. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that assembles results of the crawl search and the index search.

24. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that adds to a result list the results of the crawl search and the index search.

25. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that adds to a crawl queue the contexts corresponding to one or more links found during the crawl search.

26. The information storage medium of claim 25, wherein the context is added to the crawl queue if the context is within a crawl boundary.

27. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that detects the context based on a user'"'"'s location within a distributed network.

28. The information storage medium of claim 27, further comprising information that edits the detected context.

29. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that defines the breadth of the crawl search.

30. The information storage medium of claim 22, further comprising information that displays the results of the crawl search and the index search.

31. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the context is at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), an Internet Protocol address (IP address), a File Transfer Protocol address (FTP address), a directory, a domain name or a universal resource name.

32. The information storage medium of claim 22, wherein the at least one query also comprises one or more Boolean operands.