Searchable web whois

• US 9,026,522 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2012
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Arians, Lambert, Mukherjee, Anirban
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, HUNG D
• Application Number:
  US13/675,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20140101194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/711
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/328 Management therefor
• 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 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

Systems and methods for searching domain names and owner information associated with the domain names in a web-based Whols search tool. Systems including one or more databases and one or more text indexes may store data including the domain names and owner information, and index text-searchable portions of the data. A search request may be received from a user with user preferences such as a selection of multiple or all top level domains. Search results may be ranked by relevancy, and may include the domain name with associated owner information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented Whols search method comprising steps of:

receiving and storing domain names and corresponding owner information associated with the domain names in one or more networked databases;

determining suffixes of the domain names that have at least a minimum length of characters;

indexing the suffixes of the domain names determined to have the minimum length of characters and suffixes of text-searchable portions of the corresponding owner information;

storing the suffixes in one or more text indexes;

receiving a search request and one or more search preferences from a user;

searching the one or more text indexes in response to the search request;

receiving search results including at least one matched domain name;

querying the one or more network databases for owner information corresponding to the at least one matched domain name; and

displaying the at least one matched domain name and the corresponding owner information to the user.

2. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, wherein the one or more networked databases and one or more text indexes store domain names and owner information for multiple top level domains, and the received search request is processed with respect to all stored top level domains.

3. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, wherein the one or more networked databases and one or more text indexes store domain names and owner information with the domain names for multiple top level domains, and the received search request is processed with respect to one or more of the stored top level domains.

4. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, wherein the at least one search preference received from the user includes a selection of one or more top level domains.

5. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, wherein the minimum length of characters is three.

6. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, further comprising scoring the search results with relevancy scores based at least in part on relevancy of the matched search result to the search request, and wherein the search results are displayed in order of decreasing relevancy score.

7. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 6, further comprising boosting the relevancy score of search results included in at least one preferred top level domain, wherein the at least one preferred top level domain is predetermined or included in the at least one search preference received from by the user.

8. The computer-implemented Whols search method of claim 1, wherein the minimum length of characters for each domain name of the domain names is calculated based on a predetermined ratio and a total length of the domain name.

9. A Whols searching system comprising:

one or more networked databases that receives and stores domain names and corresponding owner information associated with the domain names;

one or more indexer modules that determines suffixes of the domain names having at least a minimum length of characters and indexes suffixes of the domain names determined to have the minimum length of characters and suffixes of text-searchable portions of the corresponding owner information;

one or more text indexes that receives and stores the suffixes indexed by the one or more indexer modules;

a web client module that receives a search request and one or more search preferences from a user;

a web server that forwards the search request to the one or more text indexes, receives search results from the one or more text indexes, queries the one or more databases for owner information corresponding to the search results, and forwards the search results with the corresponding owner information to the web client,

wherein the web client displays the search results and the corresponding owner information, and

wherein the modules are executed by one or more processors.

10. The Whols search system of claim 9, wherein the minimum length of characters is three.

11. The Whols search system of claim 9, wherein the minimum length of characters for each domain name of the domain names is calculated based on a predetermined ratio and a total length of the domain name.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed cause one or more computers to perform the Whols search method comprising steps of:

receiving and storing domain names and corresponding owner information associated with the domain names in one or more networked databases

determining suffixes of the domain names that have at least a minimum length of characters;

indexing the suffixes of the domain names determined to have the minimum length of characters and suffixes of text-searchable portions of the corresponding owner information;

storing the suffixes in one or more text indexes;

receiving a search request and one or more search preferences from a user;

searching the one or more text indexes in response to the search request;

receiving search results including at least one matched domain name;

querying the one or more network databases for owner information corresponding to the at least one matched domain name; and

displaying the at least one matched domain name and the corresponding owner information to the user.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the minimum length of characters is three.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the minimum length of characters for each domain name of the domain names is calculated based on a predetermined ratio and a total length of the domain name.