Method and system for updating a search engine

• US 20050015394A1
• Filed: 06/29/2004
• Published: 01/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Round Rock Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Round Rock Research LLC
• Inventors: McKeeth, Jim
• Granted Patent: US 7,627,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• 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: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method and a system for maintaining the freshness of a search engine server'"'"'s database. A popularity parameter is defined, and a popularity value is assigned to each link in the search engine'"'"'s database. The most popular links are selected for updating the contents stored, or associated with, the site to which the links refer. In one embodiment, popularity is based at least in part on the search results generated by the search engine in response to user queries.

Claims

1-24. -24. Canceled.

25. A method of updating contents of a search engine database comprising a plurality of links each associated with a resource, the method comprising:

determining a popularity of each of the plurality of links based at least partly on the frequency of retrieval of said each of the plurality of links by the search engine in response to search requests;

selecting one of the plurality of links based at least partly on the popularity assigned to said one of the plurality of links; and

updating information associated with said one of the plurality of links.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein determining popularity comprises determining the number of times, during a predefined period of time, that the resource is actually accessed.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein selecting said one of the plurality of links comprises determining whether the popularity of the one of the plurality of links exceeds a predetermined threshold.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein updating information comprises accessing at least a web page file supported by the resource.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the resource is configured to provide a web site associated with at least one of the plurality of links.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising communicating with a content server accessed via a computer network.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining whether the information associated with said one of the plurality of links has changed.

33. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining the age of said one of the plurality of links.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein determining the age of said one of the plurality of links comprises determining the time difference between the time said one of the plurality of links was last updated and the time at which said one of the plurality of links is being considered for updating.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising determining whether the age of said one of the plurality of links exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein updating information is performed provided that the age of said one of the plurality of links exceeds the predetermined age threshold.

37. A system for updating contents of a search engine database comprising a plurality of links each associated with a resource, the system comprising:

a first module that is configured to determine the popularity of each of the plurality of links at least partly based on the frequency of retrieval of said each of the plurality of links by a search engine in response to a search request; and

a second module, operationally connected to the first module, that is configured to select one of the plurality of links based at least partly on the popularity of said one of the plurality of links and further configured to update information associated with the one of the plurality of links in the search engine database.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the second module determines whether the popularity of the one of the plurality of links exceeds a predetermined popularity threshold and further configured to update information only the popularity exceeds the predetermined popularity threshold.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein at least one of the first module and second module comprises computer instructions executing on a processor.

40. The system of claim 37, further comprising a memory for storing a queue associated with at least one of the plurality of links for updating.

41. The system of claim 37, wherein the first module is configured to determine popularity by determining the number of times, during a predefined period of time, that the resource is actually accessed by a user after the search engine has retrieved the link as a search result in response to a user search request.

42. The system of claim 37, wherein the first module is further configured to determine the age of the link.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the second module is configured to update the link provided that the age of the link exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

44. The system of claim 37 wherein the second module comprises a robot and an indexer software.

45. The system of claim 37, wherein the resource is configured to provide a web site associated with at least one of the plurality of links.

46. A system for updating contents of a search engine database comprising a plurality of links each associated with a resource, the system comprising:

means for determining a popularity of each of the plurality of links based at least partly on the frequency of retrieval of said each of the plurality of links by the search engine in response to search requests;

means for selecting one of the plurality of links based at least partly on the popularity assigned to said one of the plurality of links; and

means for updating information associated with said one of the plurality of links.

47. The system of claim 46, further comprising means for determining the age of the link.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the updating means update information if the age of the link exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

49. The system of claim 46, wherein the updating means comprises means for accessing at least a web page file supported by the resource.

50. A method of updating contents of a search engine database comprising a plurality of links each associated with a resource, the method comprising:

determining popularity of each of the plurality of links at least partly based on the frequency of retrieval of said each of the plurality of links by the search engine in response to search requests; and

updating information associated with at least one of the plurality of links, wherein the at least one of the plurality of links is selected first for updating based at least partly on the popularity of the at least one of the plurality of links.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein determining popularity comprises determining the number of times, during a predefined period of time, that the resource is actually accessed.

52. The method of claim 50, wherein updating information comprises accessing at least a web page file supported by the resource.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the resource is configured to provide a web site associated with at least one of the plurality of links.

54. The method of claim 52, further comprising communicating with a content server accessed via a computer network.

55. The method of claim 50, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

56. The method of claim 50, further comprising determining whether the information associated with said one of the plurality of links has changed.

57. The method of claim 50, further comprising determining the age of said one of the plurality of links.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein determining the age of said one of the plurality of links comprises determining the time difference between the time said one of the plurality of links was last updated and the time at which said one of the plurality of links is being considered for updating.

59. The method of claim 58, further comprising determining whether the age of said one of the plurality of links exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein updating information is performed provided that the age of said one of the plurality of links exceeds the predetermined age threshold.

61. A method of updating contents of a search engine database comprising a plurality of links each associated with a resource, the method comprising:

retrieving at least one link in response to a first search request from a user;

determining whether the user makes a second search request;

determining popularity of the at least one link at least partly based on whether the user makes the second search request; and

updating information associated with at least one of the plurality of links, wherein the at least one of the plurality of links is selected first for updating based at least partly on the popularity of the at least one of the plurality of links.

62. The method of claim 61, further comprising:

providing a control along each the at least one link and wherein determining whether the user makes the second search request comprises whether determining whether the user activated the control.

63. The method of claim 61, wherein determining the popularity is based at least partly on whether the second search request comprises a revision of the first search request.

64. The method of claim 61, wherein determining the popularity is based at least partly on whether the second search request comprises a new search request.