Method for using agents to create a computer index corresponding to the contents of networked computers
First Claim
1. A method for constructing a catalog of object references corresponding to objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with at least one computer storing the catalog, each computer storing the catalog being designated a cataloging site, and the other computers on the network storing a plurality of objects and being designated source sites, the method comprising:
- running on each source site an agent program which processes the contents of objects stored on the source site and generates meta data for each processed object which describes the object;
transmitting the generated meta data from each host site to at least one cataloging site; and
aggregating the transmitted meta data at each cataloging site to generate the catalog of object references.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A search engine utilizes a bottom-up approach to index the content of a network with agent programs running on each host computer instead of relying on a top-down approach as used by conventional search engines. A central catalog of object references is compiled on the central site or sites from the meta data reported from each web site. One or more brochure files may also be created and stored on each web site to provide conceptual or non-key-word data about the site, such as target demographics and categorization information. This conceptual information is then utilized in constructing the central catalog so that more accurate search results may be generated for search queries applied to the catalog.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method for constructing a catalog of object references corresponding to objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with at least one computer storing the catalog, each computer storing the catalog being designated a cataloging site, and the other computers on the network storing a plurality of objects and being designated source sites, the method comprising:
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running on each source site an agent program which processes the contents of objects stored on the source site and generates meta data for each processed object which describes the object; transmitting the generated meta data from each host site to at least one cataloging site; and aggregating the transmitted meta data at each cataloging site to generate the catalog of object references. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for constructing a catalog of object references on a cataloging computer on a computer network, the computer network further including a plurality of interconnected source computers, comprising:
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running on each source computer an agent program which accesses a file system structure of the source computer and creates a data set which specifies the file system structure; transmitting at the initiation of each source computer the data set from the source computer to the cataloging computer; and processing the transmitted data sets at the cataloging computer to generate the catalog of object references that correspond to the transmitted data sets. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for constructing a catalog of object references to objects on a site in a network, the network including a plurality of sites and the objects on the site not being accessible to other sites on the network, comprising;
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running on the site a agent program that generates meta data from the contents of objects on the site, and assembling the meta data to construct the catalog of object references that correspond to the contents of the objects. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for constructing a catalog of object references from objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with one computer storing the catalog and being designated a cataloging site and each of the other computers storing a plurality of objects and being designated a source site, the method comprising:
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receiving at the cataloging site, meta data about objects stored on each source site, the meta data generated by an agent program stored on each source site, the agent program processing objects stored on the host site and generating corresponding meta data; and processing the received meta data at the cataloging site to generate the catalog of object references. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32)
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33. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for constructing a catalog of object references about objects stored on a source site in a network, the network including a plurality of sites, the objects on the source site not being accessible to other sites on the network, the computer-executable instructions operable for:
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running an agent program for generating meta data corresponding to the contents of objects on the source site, and assembling said meta data to construct a catalog of object references, wherein the catalog is stored on the same site as the objects. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification