Method and system for information retrieval from query evaluations of very large full-text databases

• US 7,114,124 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2001
• Issued: 09/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Milestone IP LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Brindle, Edward E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Cong-Lac
• Application Number:
  US09/793,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20010047374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,038 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/517, 715/500, 715/530, 707 3- 4
• US Class Current: 715/253
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to the field of electronic document storage and management, and more particularly to systems and methods for computer based text or information from text databases. More specially, the present invention relates to taking a set of URLs provided by an Internet search engine/agent, and presenting summaries of the web sites associated with the URLs in an easily readable and understandable format.

Claims

1. A method for summarizing and presenting information from contents of an Internet search, the method comprising:

extracting one or more uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search;

fetching each of the extracted uniform resource locators to access one or more HTML items associated with each of the fetched uniform resource locators;

generating a text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators;

converting each of the text summaries to a page description language summary, wherein the page description language summary provides a summary of the layout and content of the text summary as described in a page description language;

generating a layout of at least two of the page description language summaries; and

providing the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

prioritizing the extracted uniform resource locators before the fetching; and

determining an order for the fetching based on the prioritizing.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising delaying the providing of the layout until all of the extracted uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search have been fetched.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising storing each of the summaries.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein providing the layout further comprises providing an electronic document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the providing the layout further comprises providing a hard copy document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising selecting the layout of the at least two of the page description language summaries, wherein the layout processing system generates the layout based on the selected layout.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the generating generates a non-graphic, text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators.

9. A system for summarizing and presenting information from contents of an Internet search, the system comprising:

an extraction processing system that extracts one or more uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search;

a fetching system that fetches each of the extracted uniform resource locators to access one or more HTML items associated with each of the fetched uniform resource locator;

a summary processing system that generates a text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators;

a converting system that converts each of the text summaries to a page description language summary, wherein the page description language summary provides a summary of the layout and content of the text summary as described in a page description language;

a layout processing system that generates layout of at least two of the page description language summaries; and

a presentation processing system that provides the layout of the summaries of the contents of the Internet search.

10. The system as set forth in claim 9 further comprising:

a prioritizing system that prioritizes the extracted uniform resource locators before the fetching; and

an ordering system that determines an order for the fetching based on the prioritizing.

11. The system as set forth in claim 9 further comprising a delay processing system that delays the presentation processing system from providing of the layout until all of the extracted uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search have been fetched.

12. The system as set forth in claim 9 further comprising a memory device for storing each of the summaries.

13. The system as set forth in claim 9 wherein the presentation processing system provides an electronic document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

14. The system as set forth in claim 9 wherein the presentation processing system provides a hard copy document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

15. The system as set forth in claim 9 further comprising a selection system that selects the layout of the at least two of the page description language summaries, wherein the generating generates the layout based on the selected layout.

16. The system as set forth in claim 9 wherein the summary processing system generates a non-graphic, text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for summarizing and presenting information from contents of an Internet search which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of:

extracting one or more uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search;

fetching each of the extracted uniform resource locators to access one or more HTML items associated with each of the fetched uniform resource locator;

generating a text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators;

converting each of the text summaries to a page description language summary, wherein the page description language summary provides a summary of the layout and content of the text summary as described in a page description language;

generating a layout of at least two of the page description language summaries; and

providing the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

18. The medium as set forth in claim 17 further comprising:

prioritizing the extracted uniform resource locators before the fetching; and

determining an order for the fetching based on the prioritizing.

19. The medium as set forth in claim 17 further comprising delaying the providing of the layout until all of the extracted uniform resource locators from the contents of the Internet search have been fetched.

20. The medium as set forth in claim 17 further comprising storing each of the summaries.

21. The medium as set forth in claim 17 wherein providing the layout further comprises providing an electronic document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

22. The medium as set forth in claim 17 wherein the providing the layout further comprises providing a hard copy document with the layout of the summaries for the contents of the Internet search.

23. The medium as set forth in claim 17 further comprising selecting the layout of the at least two of the page description language summaries, wherein the generating generates the layout based on the selected layout.

24. The medium as set forth in claim 17 wherein the generating generates a non-graphic, text summary of the accessed HTML items for each of the uniform resource locators.