Custom search index

• US 7,725,453 B1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Johnny, Mysen, Clarence Christopher, Verma, Naval
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): MUELLER, KURT A
• Application Number:
  US11/618,327
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/711
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system includes an application programming interface, an indexer, a security unit and at least one search engine. The application programming interface uploads user-selected custom content from a first user. The indexer indexes the custom content to produce a first search index. The security unit authenticates a user and the at least one search engine receives a search query from the user, searches the first search index based on the search query, and searches a second search index based on the search query and based on results of the user authentication, where the second search index is different than the first search index.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a searching system, the method comprising:

crawling, by one or more devices within the searching system, the web to obtain web content by;

indexing, by one or more devices within the searching system, the web content to produce a web search index;

receiving, by one or more devices within the searching system, first custom content associated with a first user, where the first custom content includes data that is uploaded by the first user via an application programming interface or includes data that is designated by the first user from a set of documents;

indexing, by one or more devices within the searching system, the first custom content to produce a first custom search index, where the first custom search index is different than the web search index;

receiving, by one or more devices within the searching system and from a second user, a search query submitted via a user interface;

searching by one or more devices within the searching system and based on the search query, the web search index and the first custom search index, where searching the web search index and the first custom search index includes;

permitting, by one or more devices within the searching system, the second user to have unrestricted access to the web search index, and

permitting, by one or more devices within the searching system, the second user to have restricted access to the first custom search index; and

displaying to the second user, by one or more devices within the searching system, results from searching the web search index and the first custom search index.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second custom content associated with a second user;

indexing the second custom content to produce a second custom search index, where the second custom search index is different than the first custom search index and the web search index; and

searching, based on the search query, the second custom search index, where the searching includes permitting restricted access to the second custom search index.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the second user,

where permitting the second user to have restricted access to the first custom search index includes searching, after the second user is authenticated, the first custom search index based on the search query.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the web content includes text associated with each document of a plurality of documents crawled on the web.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the web search index contains a first plurality of index entries, and where at least one of the first plurality of index entries stores:

a term or other data extracted from the web content, and

a list of identifiers that identifies where the term or other data appears in the web content.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, where the first custom search index contains a second plurality of index entries, and where at least one of the second plurality of index entries stores:

a term or other data extracted from the first custom content, and

a list of identifiers that identifies where the term or other data appears in the first custom content.

7. A system, comprising:

one or more devices comprising;

means for crawling the web to obtain web content;

means for indexing the web content to produce a web search index;

means for receiving first custom content from a user via an application programming interface (API);

means for indexing the first custom content to produce a first custom search index, where the first custom search index is different than the web search index;

means for authenticating a second user;

means for receiving a search query submitted from the second user via a user interface;

means for searching the web search index based on the search query,

means for selectively searching, based on the search query and based on a result of authenticating the second user, the first custom search index; and

means for forwarding, to the user interface, results from searching the web search index and results from selectively searching the first custom search index.

8. The system of claim 7, where the web content does not include any documents included in the first custom content.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a database to;

store the web search index and the first custom search index, the web search index being separate and distinct from the first custom search index in the database.