Distributed searching system and searching apparatus for use in the distributed searching system

• US 6,708,199 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2000
• Issued: 03/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Ohtani, Takeshi, Minami, Toshiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Application Number:
  US09/742,186
• Publication Number:
  US 20010051975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 707/1, 707/3, 707/10, 707/104
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9532 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A distributed search system that includes a plurality of agents connected on a network that includes an information resource provider. Each of the agents stores information corresponding to information resources in a storage device of a nearest agent as advertisement information. The stored advertisement information includes cost information. An agent which receives the advertisement information transfers the advertisement information to other agents in a range determined on the basis of the cost information. The cost information may be included in a search request of an information resource searcher making a search request to search the stored advertisement information. The information resource searcher sends the search request including the cost information to agents in a range of transmission corresponding to the cost information included in the search request.

Claims

1. A distributed search system connecting a plurality of a searching apparatus on a network, each of the plurality of searching apparatus comprising:

means for storing advertisement information including position information of an information resource;

means for searching the storing means of each of the plurality of searching apparatus in response to a search request;

means for accepting a request to register advertisement information in the storing means; and

means for transferring the advertisement information requested to be registered to the plurality of searching apparatus wherein transferring of the advertisement information is determined by cost information given to the advertisement information.

2. A distributed search system according to claim 1, wherein the search request is relayed along a path between one or more of the plurality of searching apparatus and advertisement information stored in each of the one or more plurality of searching apparatus is updated during an inverse trace of the path.

3. A distributed search system according to claim 1, the storing means further comprising storing an evaluation value of an information resource corresponding to advertisement information obtained during the search by the searching means.

4. A distributed search system according to claim 3, further comprising:

means for selecting advertisement information having a positive evaluation value and/or information resources corresponding to the selected advertisement information from the search result, and presenting the selected information resource to an information resource searcher making the search request.

5. A distributed search system according to claim 3, further comprising means for providing an evaluation value of an information resource designated by an information resource searcher to an information resource provider.

6. A distributed search system according to claim 3, wherein a period for storing the advertisement information stored in each searching apparatus is changed and/or deleted based on the evaluation value given to the advertisement information.

7. A distributed search system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cost information is set as the number of units of the searching apparatus with which the advertisement information is transferred on the network and each searching apparatus executes the calculation to subtract the number of units of the searching apparatus included in the search scope information given to the advertisement information.

8. A distributed search system connecting a plurality of searching apparatus on a network, each of the plurality of searching apparatus comprising:

means for storing advertisement information including position information of an information resource; and

means for searching the storing means in response to a search request, wherein the search request is accepted from searching means of the plurality of computers, and a search range corresponding to the search request is determined by cost information of the search request.

9. A distributed search system according to claim 8, wherein the search request is relayed along a path between one or more of the plurality of searching apparatus the distributed search system further comprises means for updating the stored advertisement information in each of the one or more plurality of searching apparatus during an inverse trace of the path.

10. A distributed search system according to claim 8, wherein the storing means stores an evaluation value given to an information resource corresponding to advertisement information obtained in response to the search request.

11. A distributed search system according to claim 10, further comprising means for selecting advertisement information having a positive evaluation value and/or information resources corresponding to the selected advertisement information from the search result, and presenting the selected information resource to an information resource searcher making the search request.

12. A distributed search system according to claim 10, further comprising means for supplying an evaluation value designated by an information resource searcher to the plurality of searching apparatus.

13. A distributed search system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the cost information is set as the number of units of the searching apparatus with which the search request is transferred on the network and each searching apparatus executes a calculation to subtract the number of units of the searching apparatus included in the cost information given to the search request.

14. A plurality of searching apparatus, having corresponding information resources, connected to a network that includes an information resource provider, each of the plurality of searching apparatus comprising:

a storage device to store advertisement information that includes position information corresponding to the information resources;

an advertisement processing device to accept registration of the advertisement information from the information resource provider; and

a control device to store the advertisement information accepted for registration by the advertisement processing device in the storage device, transfer the advertisement information accepted for registration to the plurality of searching apparatus, and store and transfer advertisement information transferred from the plurality of searching apparatus,

wherein search scope information is included in the advertisement information, and the control device determines whether the advertisement information is transferred to the plurality of searching apparatus based on the search scope information.

15. A plurality of searching apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the control device calculates the search scope information and the search scope information is updated when the control devices transfers the advertisement information.

16. A searching apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the cost information is set as the number of units of the searching apparatus with which the search request is transferred on the network and the calculation of cost information by the control means is executed to subtract the number of units of the searching apparatus.

17. A plurality of searching apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the information resources of the plurality of searching apparatus include a corresponding evaluation value, and the advertisement processing device obtains the evaluation value of the accepted advertisement information and presents the obtained evaluation value to one of the plurality of searching apparatus.

18. A searching apparatus, from among a plurality of searching apparatus having information resources, that processes a search request from an information resource searcher, comprising:

a storage device to store advertisement information that includes position information of the information resources;

an interface device to provide a search result, having corresponding advertisement information, in response to the search request; and

a control device to search the storage device in response to the search request, transfer the search request to the plurality of searching apparatus, search the storage device in response to a search request transferred from one of the plurality of searching apparatus and transfer the transferred search request to the plurality of searching apparatus other than the one searching apparatus, and transfer resulting advertisement information to the information resource searcher or the one of the plurality of searching apparatus,

wherein search scope information is included in the search request, and the control device determines whether the search request is transferred to the plurality of searching apparatus other than the one of the plurality of searching apparatus based on the search scope information.

19. A searching apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the control device updates the search scope information and transfers the search request to the plurality of searching apparatus other than the one of the plurality of searching apparatus based on the updated search scope information.

20. A search method to be executed by respective searching apparatuses in a distributed search system formed of a plurality of searching apparatus in a network, comprising:

searching, when a search request including a search scope is received from another searching apparatus, a database within the searching apparatus that stores at least one of an information and a location to access the information based on the search request;

returning, when at least one of the information and the location to access the information matched the search condition, the information resource and/or the location to access to the information resource to the other searching apparatus; and

determining whether the search request should be transferred to an additional searching apparatus, based on the search scope.

21. The search method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the determining includes at least one of a calculation related to the search scope and transferring the search request to the other searching apparatus after updating the search scope to the value obtained by the calculation.

22. The search method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the search scope is set as a number of units to which the search request is to be transferred and each searching apparatus executes the calculation to subtract a number of units.

23. The search method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the search request further includes an intrinsic identifier for each search request and the search method further comprises:

determining whether the search request is the same as a stored search request using the intrinsic identifier;

when the determination whether the search request is the same as a stored search request is negative, the searching, the returning and the determining whether the search request should be transferred are executed and the search request with the intrinsic identifier are stored; and

when the determination whether the search request is the same as a stored search request is positive, the searching, the returning and the determining whether the search request should be transferred are not performed.

24. A computer program stored in a computer-readable memory medium in a searching apparatuses in a distributed search system formed through a connection of a plurality of searching apparatuses on a network, the program comprising:

a process to search, when a search request including a search scope is received from another searching apparatus, a database within the searching apparatus that stores at least one of an information and a location to access the information based on the search request;

a process to return, when at least one of the information and the location to access the information matched the search condition, the information resource and/or the location to access to the information resource to the other searching apparatus; and

a process to determine whether the search request should be transferred to an additional searching apparatus, based on the search scope.

25. The computer program stored on the computer-readable memory medium as claimed in claim 24, wherein the process to determine includes at least one of a calculation related to the search scope and transferring the search request to the other searching apparatus after updating the search scope to the value obtained by the calculation.

26. The computer program stored on the computer-readable memory medium as claimed in claim 25, wherein the search scope is set as a number of units to which the search request is to be transferred and each searching apparatus executes the calculation to subtract a number of units.

27. The computer program stored on a computer-readable memory medium as claimed in claim 24, wherein the search request further includes an intrinsic identifier for each search request and the computer program further comprises:

a process to determine whether the search request is the same as a stored search request using the intrinsic identifier;

a process such that when the determination whether the search request is the same as a stored search request is negative, the process to search and the process to return and the process to determine whether the search request should be transferred are executed and the search request with the intrinsic identifier are stored; and

a process such that when the determination whether the search request is the same as a stored search request is positive, the process to search, and the process to return and the process to determine whether the search request should be transferred are not performed.

28. A plurality of searching apparatus, having corresponding information resources, connected to a network that includes an information resource provider, each of the plurality of searching apparatus comprising:

a storage device to store advertisement information that includes position information corresponding to the information resources;

an advertisement processing device to accept registration of the advertisement information from the information resource provider; and

a control device to store the advertisement information accepted for registration by the advertisement processing device in the storage device, transfer the advertisement information accepted for registration to the plurality of searching apparatus, and store and transfer advertisement information transferred from the plurality of searching apparatus,

wherein the cost information is set as the number of units of the searching apparatus with which the advertisement information is transferred on the network and the calculation of cost information by the control means is executed to subtract the number of units of the searching apparatus.

29. A searching apparatus, from among a plurality of searching apparatus having information resources, that processes a search request from an information resource searcher, comprising:

a storage device to store advertisement information that includes position information of the information resources;

an interface device to provide a search result, having corresponding advertisement information, in response to the search request; and

a control device to search the storage device in response to the search request, transfer the search request to the plurality of searching apparatus, search the storage device in response to a search request transferred from one of the plurality of searching apparatus and transfer the transferred search request to the plurality of searching apparatus other than the one searching apparatus, and transfer resulting advertisement information to the information resource searcher or the one of the plurality of searching apparatus,

wherein the search request includes an intrinsic identifier for each search request and the search apparatus further comprises;

a search record storing means to store the search request having executed the process to transfer the search request to the other searching apparatus together with the intrinsic identifier, wherein when the search request is received from the other searching apparatus, whether the search request same as the search request exists or not is determined by searching the search record storing means using the intrinsic identifier included in the received search request, and when the search request same as the search request does not exist, the process to transfer the search request to the other searching apparatus is executed and the search request is stored in the search record storing means, or when the search request same as the search request exists, the process to transfer the search request to the other searching apparatus and the storing process to the search record storing means are not performed.

30. A distributed search system connecting a plurality of searching apparatus on a network, each of the plurality of searching apparatus comprising:

means for storing advertisement information including position information of an information resource; and

means for searching the storing means in response to a search request, wherein the search request is accepted from searching means of the plurality of computers, and a search range corresponding to the search request is determined by search scope information of the search request.