Searching content on web pages

• US 7,047,229 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2000
• Issued: 05/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: America Online Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goel, Surendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Application Number:
  US09/749,629
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,965 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/100, 707/7, 707/3, 707/5, 707/10, 707/102, 707/4, 707/203, 705/35, 715/500
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Performing a search to identify web sites that relate to a search term based on text within the web sites includes receiving at least one search term that then is compared with electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether matches exist. The electronic information within the at least one information store may include text and/or full text displayed by different web pages from different web sites. Results based on the matches that are determined to exist are displayed. The results include at least one website identifier. The search may be performed by a web host having members and may further include automatically scanning and storing the text of a website when the website is accessed by a member of the web host. The stored text may be compared against received search terms.

Claims

1. A system for storing searchable content, the system comprising:

a first electronic region that includes text displayed by different web pages from different web sites and that is populated by determining a number of times a web site is accessed by members of a web host and conditioning automatic scanning and storage of the text of the web site based upon whether the web site has been accessed a threshold number of times by the members of the web host; and

a second electronic region that includes text displayed by different web pages from different web sites and that is populated by automatically scanning and storing the text of a web site provided by a listing service that was not accessed the threshold number of times by members of the web host.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first electronic region and the second electronic region further include full text displayed by different web pages from different web sites.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first electronic region and the second electronic region further include titles, descriptions, and addresses displayed by different web pages from different web sites.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the text includes a symbol other than an alphanumeric symbol.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the text of a web site is stored in the first electronic region when a count of users that are provided with web access by the web host and that have accessed the web site exceeds the threshold number.

6. A method for performing a search to identify web sites that relate to a search term based on text within the web sites, the method comprising:

receiving at least one search term;

comparing the search term with electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether matches exist, where the electronic information within the at least one electronic information store includes text of only pages displayed as introductory web pages by different web sites such that comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with the text of only pages displayed as introductory web pages by different web sites; and

displaying results based on the matches that are determined to exist, the results including at least one web site identifier.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the text of an introductory page includes full text of the introductory page such that comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with the full text of the introductory pages.

8. A method for performing a search to identify web sites that relate to a search term based on content within the web sites, the method being performed by a web host having members and comprising:

determining whether a web page of a web site is accessed by a member of a web host;

conditioning automatic collection of content appearing on the web page based upon whether the web page has been accessed by a member of a web host;

storing the content that was automatically collected for comparison against search terms received;

receiving at least one search term;

comparing the search term with the content stored from within at least two different web pages from different web sites to determine whether matches exist; and

displaying results based on the matches that are determined to exist, the results including at least one web site identifier.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

identifying a web site being accessed by a member of the web host; and

determining whether the content of the web site was previously stored,

wherein automatically collecting and storing include automatically storing the content of a web site only when the content of the web site is determined not to have been previously stored.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether the content of a web site has been stored comprises using a web site address corresponding to the web site.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether the content of a web site has been stored comprises:

scanning the content of the web site being accessed; and

using the scanned content of the web site to determine whether the content of the web site was previously stored.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises:

identifying web sites provided by a listing service; and

determining whether the content of the web sites provided by the listing service were stored previously,

wherein automatically collecting and storing includes storing the content of the web sites that were determined not to have been stored previously.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein web sites provided by a listing service are identified periodically.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically collecting comprises automatically collecting the full content of a web site when the web site is accessed by a member of the web host.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically collecting comprises automatically collecting the full content of at least a web site provided by a listing service that has not been accessed by a member of the web host.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically collecting comprises automatically collecting the content of at least a web page on a web site when the web page is accessed by a member of the web host.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein the content appearing on the web page includes text.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein the content appearing on the web page includes one or more images.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein the content appearing on the web page includes video content.

20. The method of claim 8 wherein the content appearing on the web page includes audio content.

21. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically collecting the content includes automatically scanning the content appearing on the web page of the web site.

22. The method of claim 8 wherein conditioning automatic collection of content appearing on the web page comprises conditioning automatic collection of content appearing on the web based upon whether a count of users that are provided with web access by the web host and that have accessed the web page exceeds a threshold number.

23. A method for performing a search to identify web sites that relate to a search term based on text within the web sites, the method comprising:

receiving at least one search term;

comparing the search term with electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether matches exist, where the electronic information within the at least one electronic information store includes text displayed by different web pages from different web sites and titles, descriptions, and addresses of the different web sites such that comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with at least one of the text, the titles, the descriptions, and the addresses of the web sites;

displaying results based on the matches that are determined to exist, the results including identifiers for several web sites; and

ranking identifiers for the several web sites based on whether the matches occur with at least one of the text, the titles, the descriptions, and the addresses of the web sites.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with more than one of the text, the titles, the descriptions, and the addresses of the web site is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with only one of the text, the titles, the descriptions, and the addresses of the web site.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the titles is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the descriptions, the addresses, and the text of the web sites.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the descriptions is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the addresses and the text of the web site.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the descriptions is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the addresses of the web site.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the descriptions is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the text of the web site.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the addresses is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the text of the web site.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the text includes a symbol other than an alphanumeric symbol.

31. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the titles is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the descriptions and of the web sites.

32. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the titles is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the addresses of the web sites.

33. The method of claim 23 wherein the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the titles is ranked higher than the identifier for a web site that includes matches that occur with the text of the web sites.

34. The method of claim 23 comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with all of the text, the titles, the descriptions, and the addresses of the web sites.

35. The method of claim 23 wherein ranking the identifiers includes ranking the identifiers for several web sites based on a number of matches that are determined to exist between the search term and the electronic information.

36. The method of claim 23 comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with the titles of the web sites.

37. The method of claim 23 comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with the descriptions of the web sites.

38. The method of claim 23 comparing the search term comprises comparing the search term with the addresses of the web sites.

39. A computer program, stored on a computer readable medium for performing a search to identify web sites that relate to a search term based on text within the web sites, comprising instructions for:

receiving at least one search term;

comparing the search term with electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether matches exist, wherein the electronic information within the at least one electronic information store includes text of only pages displayed as introductory web pages by different web sites such that the instructions for comparing the search term comprise instructions for comparing the search term with the text of pages displayed as introductory web pages by different web sites; and

displaying results based on the matches that are determined to exist, the results including at least one web site identifier.

40. The computer program of claim 39 wherein the text of an introductory page includes full text of the introductory page and the instructions for comparing comprise instructions for comparing the search item with the full text of the introductory page.