Methods and systems for search indexing

• US 8,498,977 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X1 Discovery, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Future Search Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Gross, William, Colwell, Steven Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Syling
• Application Number:
  US11/932,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114761A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,099 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/707, 707/708, 707/713, 707/722, 707/736, 707/758, 707/781, 709/217
• US Class Current: 707/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

The present invention provides for quick and efficient searching. One embodiment includes a first instruction configured to read at least a first search string and a second search string entered into a same first search field, and a second instruction configured to incrementally filter search results to locate at least a first document that has a least a first word that begins with the first string and a second word that begins with the second string.

Claims

1. A computerized method of selectively executing a command, the method comprising:

providing a user interface comprising a first search field;

receiving a first string in the first search field from a user-controlled input device;

receiving a second string in the first search field from the user-controlled input device;

by determining that the first string comprises a command, selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command; and

by determining that the first string does not comprise a command, selectively initiating an incremental search of a plurality of documents that are primarily textual, including word processing documents and/or electronic mail, wherein the incremental search comprises updating search results as each successive character of the first string and second string is received respectively from the user-controlled input device, wherein updating the search results comprises;

identifying a first group of the plurality of documents including the first string,

identifying a second group of the plurality of documents including the second string, and

identifying one or more of the plurality of documents that are included in both of the first and second groups, wherein the first string and the second string are non-adjacent in at least one of the identified documents.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining whether the first string comprises a command comprises:

comparing at least a portion of the first string to a set of commands; and

determining if the at least a portion of the first string corresponds to a command in the set of commands.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command comprises executing a command file edited by an end user.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command comprises executing a search application command.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command comprises executing a command process using the second string entered into the first search field as a command argument.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining if the second string and a third string entered into the first search field are command arguments, and if so, determining if there is an HTML violation.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

determining if there is an ambiguity with respect to at least a first command entered by a user; and

presenting a list of user selectable options in order to resolve the ambiguity.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the plurality of documents comprises a plurality of email documents.

9. A method of performing a search comprising:

receiving a first partial search string in a first search field;

receiving a second partial search string in the first search field;

wherein the first and second partial search strings are separated by a string separator character in the first search field;

by determining that the first partial search string comprises a command, selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command; and

by determining that the first partial search string does not comprise a command, incrementally searching a set of documents in order to identify search results, wherein the incrementally searching comprises;

searching for a first one or more documents each including at least one string that corresponds to the first partial search string;

searching for a second one or more documents each including at least one string that corresponds to the second partial search string; and

updating the search results as each successive character of the first partial search string and the second partial search string is received respectively in the first search field by

identifying one or more documents included in both the first one or more documents and the second one or more documents, wherein the first partial search string and the second partial search string are non-adjacent in at least one of the identified documents.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first partial search string comprises characters corresponding to at least a portion of a first string being searched for and the second search string comprises characters corresponding to at least a portion of a second string being searched for.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying in a user interface an indication of the identified one or more documents included in both the first one or more documents and the second one or more documents.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying via the user interface a portion of a selected identified document.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the string separator character is selected from the group comprising a space, “

<

”

, “

(”

, “

[”

, and “

{”

.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising highlighting a plurality of occurrences of the first and second partial search strings in the selected document while not highlighting portions of text between occurrences of the first and second partial search strings in the selected document.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the documents comprise emails, text documents, contact information, appointment information, task information, music files, system files, photographs, and/or images.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least the following email fields in which one or more of the first and second partial search strings may be located:

to, from, cc, bcc, subject, body.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the search field corresponds to a single field of the documents and the incrementally searching is performed only on content of the single field of the documents.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the single field of the documents comprises one of:

to, from, cc, bcc, subject, or body fields of email documents.

19. A search apparatus stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the search apparatus comprising instructions configured to be executed by a computing device in order to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first string in a first search field;

by determining that the first string comprises a command, selectively initiating execution of a command process associated with the command; and

by determining that the first string does not comprise a command

incrementally updating a first group of documents that has at least a first word that begins with the first string as each successive character of the first string is received in the first search field;

receiving a second string in the first search field, wherein the first and second strings are separated by a string separator character in the first search field;

in response to receiving the second string, incrementally updating a second group of documents that has at least a second word that begins with the second string as each successive character of the second string is received in the first search field;

incrementally identifying a set of one or more of the documents included in both the first group of documents and the second group of documents as each successive character of the first search string and the second search string is received respectively in the first search field, wherein the first string and the second string are non-adjacent in at least one of the identified documents; and

displaying an indication of at least one of the identified documents.

20. The search apparatus of claim 19, wherein at least some of the first group of documents comprise emails.