Systems and methods for a search engine having runtime components

• US 7,996,383 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2008
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Athena A. Smyros, Constantine Smyros
• Original Assignee: Athena A. Smyros, Constantine Smyros
• Inventors: Smyros, Constantine, Smyros, Athena A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; Nicholas E
• Application Number:
  US12/192,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20100042590A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,089 Days
• Field of Search: 707/711
• US Class Current: 707/711
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention form an information set from the current set of index information available by the operations of the pre-search and runtime Search components of the search engine. A search request that contains search terms and/or other search criteria (e.g. date or file type) is entered by a user through an input interface. The search terms and the information set are worked through the search engine modules to provide the actual results sought by the user. These results are provided to the user via an output interface. Embodiments of a search engine involve runtime aspects that remove duplicate documents from the index, provide topical searching, and provide caching for the search engine.

Claims

1. A search engine that is stored on a computer readable medium, comprising:

a Pre-Search component that forms an index from a plurality of documents, wherein the index comprises numeric code that includes grammar embedded rules;

a RealTime Search component that receives a search request from a user, converts the search request into the numeric code, and compares the converted search request with the index to form search results;

a RunTime Search component that is operative to perform at least one of handle duplication in the documents, providing a Topical Searcher module, and caching the index for use by an electronic device using the search engine; and

a Post-Search component that receives the search results and converts the search results into a format of the search request, and provides the converted search results to the user.

2. The search engine of claim 1, wherein the RunTime Search component operates at one of prior to the RealTime Search component and concurrent with the RealTime Search component.

3. The search engine of claim 1, wherein the RunTime Search component comprises:

a Duplicate Blocker module that modifies the index to reflect duplication in the documents.

4. The search engine of claim 3, wherein duplication comprises at least one of a duplication of a portion of one document by another document, and a duplication of a document by another document.

5. The search engine of claim 3, wherein the index comprises a matrix of term units, wherein each term unit is a set of characters that is separated by a space from another term unit;

and the Duplicate Blocker module operates to locate duplicate term units within the index.

6. The search engine of claim 5, wherein the Duplicate Blocker module operates to locate duplicate term units without grammatical form.

7. The search engine of claim 5, wherein the duplicate term units are located in a single document, and the Duplicate Blocker module operates to an increase of relevance of the document during formation of the search results.

8. The search engine of claim 5, wherein the duplicate term units are located in at least two documents of the plurality of documents, and the Duplicate Blocker module operates to modify the index to include an indication of the duplication.

9. The search engine of claim 3, wherein a user controls the operation of the Duplicate Blocker module by setting a switch in an input interface to the search engine.

10. The search engine of claim 1, wherein the RunTime Search component comprises:

a Topic Search module that determines at least one topic of the plurality of documents and forms a topic index that is searchable by a user.

11. The search engine of claim 10, wherein the Topic Search module analyzes each document of the plurality of document to determine at least one topic for each of the documents, and then analyzes the plurality of documents to determine topics that are common to at least two of the documents.

12. The search engine of claim 10, wherein the topic index is merged into the index formed by the Pre-Search component.

13. The search engine of claim 10, wherein the topic index is different from the index formed by the Pre-Search component.

14. The search engine of claim 10, wherein a user controls the operation of the Topic Search module by setting a switch in an input interface to the search engine.

15. The search engine of claim 1, wherein the index formed by the Pre-Search component is located remote from the RealTime Search component, and wherein the RunTime Search component comprises:

a Cacher module that operates to locally store a copy of the remote index for use by the RealTime Search component, wherein the Cacher module is local with the RealTime Search component.

16. The search engine of claim 15, wherein the Cacher module operates to download a copy of the index to a memory that is local to the RealTime Search component when invoked by the RealTime Search component.

17. A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for searching an information repository, the computer program product comprising search engine that is stored on a computer readable medium which, when executed, performs the operations of:

forming an index from a plurality of documents of the information repository, wherein the index comprises numeric code that includes grammar embedded rules;

receiving a search request from a user, converting the search request into the numeric code, and comparing the converted search request with the index to form search results;

performing at least one of handling duplication in the documents, providing a topical search operation, and caching the index for use by an electronic device using the search engine; and

converting the search results into a format of the search request, and providing the converted search results to the user.

18. The product of claim 17, wherein the performing operation comprises:

modifying the index to reflect duplication in the documents.

19. The product of claim 17, wherein the performing operation comprises:

determining at least one topic of the plurality of documents and forming a topic index that is searchable by the user.

20. The product of claim 17, wherein the forming operation operates remote from the receiving operation, and wherein the performing operation comprises:

storing a copy of the index, wherein the storing operation operates locally with the receiving operation.