Significant change search alerts

• US 8,108,388 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2006
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gideoni, Michal, Meyerzon, Dmitriy, Neagovici-Negoescu, Mircea, Frable, Menton J.
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US11/412,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20070255744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,106 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/731
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536

Abstract

An alert search mechanism is used with search engines such as a crawler to search for desired documents and/or resources. Particular documents are found by using search queries. The search mechanism track values of a set of relevant properties in queries. Whenever a document is searched for by the system, the values of these set of properties are matched with the old value. If there is no match, this is an indication that the document has changed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for sending search alert results, comprising:

establishing a schema consisting of a set of properties to be tracked within searched resources;

wherein the set of properties is a subset of the properties that are used in determining when a resource changes;

wherein the schema changes when a change is made to the set of properties to be tracked, wherein the properties set a discovery time and a modification time of a search for document, wherein the discovery time is a first time a document is discovered by a gatherer application performing a crawl and wherein the modification time is determined using at least a content signature property, a URL signature property, and a schema signature property;

receiving a first query result from a first search engine, wherein the query result is obtained in response to a first query that comprises a first search value for locating resources;

forming a first digital signature of a first relevant portion of the resource identified by the first search query results and the set of properties to be tracked, wherein the first relevant portion comprises content identified by the first search value;

receiving a second query result from a second search engine, wherein the query result is obtained in response to a second query that comprises the first search query, and wherein the second search engine is the same as or different from the first search engine;

forming a second digital signature of a second relevant portion of the resource identified by the second search query results and the set of properties to be tracked, wherein the second relevant portion comprises content identified by the first search value;

sending a notification to a user in response to a comparison of the first and second digital signatures being different and a determination that the schema has not changed between the forming of the first digital signature and the second digital signature; and

forming a third digital signature of a third relevant portion of the resource identified by the first search query results, wherein the third relevant portion comprises content identified by a second search value;

forming a fourth digital signature of a fourth relevant portion of the resource identified by the second search query results, wherein the fourth relevant portion comprises content identified by the second search value comparing the first and second digital signatures; and

sending a notification to a user in response a comparison of the third and fourth digital signatures being different.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first search value comprises a set of relevant properties.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising forming a digital signature of a URL of the resource identified by the first search query results.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second search engines are crawlers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification is sent to the user at predetermined intervals of time.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming a digital signature of a URL of the resource identified by the first search query results.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

forming a fifth digital signature of a schema of the resource identified by the first search query results; and

forming a sixth digital signature of a schema of the resource identified by the second search query results.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the notification is not sent to a user in response to a comparison of the fifth and sixth digital signatures being different.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming a full-text index of the resource identified by the first search query results.

10. A system for sending search alert results, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable storage memory;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable memory and executing on the processor;

a search alerts handler for storing and issuing alert queries that comprise search values for searching for documents;

a property store for storing property sets of properties of a search value from documents identified by an alert query;

wherein the set of properties is a subset of the properties that determine when a document changes;

wherein the set of properties defines a schema;

wherein the schema changes when a change is made to the set of properties;

wherein the properties set a discovery time and a modification time of a searched for document, wherein the discovery time is a first time a document is discovered by a gatherer application performing a crawl and wherein the modification time is determined using at least a content signature property, a URL signature property and a schema signature property; and

a gatherer for detecting when changes to the set of properties are made, wherein the gatherer detects the changes by comparing a first property set of properties of a search value in a document identified by a search value at a first time with a second property set of properties of the search value in the document identified by the search value at a second time, and wherein the gatherer notifies a user of the document associated with the detected changes when the schema has not changed between the first time and the second time.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the documents comprise media content.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the gatherer is further arranged to construct a full text index of the document identified by the search value at the first time.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the URL signature uses an MD5 hash of a URL for the document.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the schema signature property is updated when a crawl is performed.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the property set comprises a property for a schema modification time of a schema for the document identified by the search value at the first time, and wherein the gatherer is further arranged to notify users of document changes that have a modification time that is after the schema modification time.

16. A computer-readable storage memory comprising computer-executable instructions for:

storing a property set of properties of a search value for a document identified by an alert query at a first and a second time, wherein the stored property sets are digital signatures of portions of the identified document that comprise the search value;

wherein the property set is a subset of properties that determines when a document identified by the alert changes;

wherein the properties set a discovery time and a modification time of a searched for document wherein the discovery time is a first time a document is discovered by a gatherer application performing a crawl and wherein the modification time is determined using at least a content signature property, a URL signature property and a schema signature property;

comparing the property set from the first time with the property set from the second time; and

sending a notification to a user in response to the property set from the first time being different from the property set from the second time when a schema version that is associated with the document has not changed;

wherein the schema version identifies a set of properties that are monitored to determine whether a resource is tracked; and

wherein the schema version changes when a first property is added to the set of the properties and when a second property is removed from the set of the properties.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising computer-executable instructions wherein the URL signature property comprises a digital signature of a URL that is associated with the document that is identified by the alert query at the first time.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the schema signature property comprises a digital signature of a schema that is associated with the document that is identified by the alert query at the first time.

19. The tangible medium of claim 16 further comprising computer-executable instructions for tracking versions of lists of the stored property sets.