GENERATING AN INDEX FOR A NETWORK SEARCH ENGINE

• US 20070244857A1
• Filed: 04/17/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yu, Gilbert
• Granted Patent: US 8,065,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A method of generating a TrafficRank index for a network search engine is described. The method includes monitoring network traffic through a network device. The method further uses the monitored traffic information to generate and maintain a TrafficRank index. The invention extends to a method of generating search results, including generating search results from a search engine index and ranking the search results based on the TrafficRank index. The invention also extends to a method of generating and updating a search engine index either in real-time or in batch mode. If the method is adopted, any website or URLs accessed through website monitor/notifier/updater module by a web user, either by clicking on a hypertext link, entering the URL address on a web browser, or selecting a bookmark on a web browser, would be included and updated in the search engine index.

Claims

1. A method of generating an index for a search engine, the method including:

monitoring network traffic through a network device to provide monitored traffic data; and

communicating the monitored traffic data to an indexer to generate an index of the monitored network traffic.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, in which the index is a TrafficRank index based on destination Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, which includes ranking search results of the search engine based, at least partially, on the monitored traffic data in the TrafficRank index.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, in which the TrafficRank index includes a number of times a website has been accessed and in which search results are ranked more highly in response to being accessed more often.

5. A method as claimed in claim 2, which includes combining the TrafficRank index with algorithmic weightings to rank a search result.

6. A method as claimed in claim 2, in which the monitored traffic data includes a website address, the method including using the web address as a seed address for a crawler to update the search engine index.

7. A method of generating an index for a network search engine, the method including:

receiving at an indexer a communication of monitored traffic data that provides monitored network traffic through a network device; and

generating an index of the monitored network traffic based on the monitored traffic data.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, in which the index is a traffic index based on destination Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, which includes ranking search results of the search engine based, at least partially, on the monitored traffic data in the TrafficRank index.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, in which the TrafficRank index includes a number of times a website has been accessed and in which search results are ranked higher in response to being accessed more often.

11. A method as claimed in claim 8, which includes combining the traffic index with algorithmic weightings to rank a search result.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, in which the monitored traffic data includes a website address, the method including using the website address as used as a seed address for a crawler to update the search engine index.

13. A method as claimed in claim 8, in which the monitored traffic data includes a monitored website address, the method including replacing an existing corresponding website address in the search engine index with the monitored website address when the monitored web address is a more up-to-date version.

14. A method of providing search results, the method including:

generating initial search results from a search engine index; and

ranking the initial search results based on a network TrafficRank index.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, in which each website provided in the search results has an associated TrafficRank, and wherein a website accessed more frequently has a higher TrafficRank than a website accessed less frequently.

16. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

monitor network traffic through a network device to provide monitored traffic data; and

communicate the monitored traffic data to an indexer to generate an index of the monitored network traffic.

17. A network device arranged to forward network traffic in a network, the device including:

a network traffic monitoring module to monitor network traffic through the device and generate monitored traffic data; and

a communication arrangement to communicate the monitored traffic data to an indexer to generate an index of the monitored network traffic.

18. A search server system to provide search results to at least one computer connected to the server via a network, the system including:

a search engine index from which search results are generated; and

a TrafficRank index based on which the search results are ranked.

19. A system for generating an index for a network search engine, the system including:

means for monitoring network traffic through a network device to provide monitored traffic data; and

means for communicating the monitored traffic data to an indexer to generate an index of the monitored network traffic.