Content-indexing search system and method providing search results consistent with content filtering and blocking policies implemented in a blocking engine

• US 6,336,117 B1
• Filed: 04/30/1999
• Issued: 01/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Massarani, Leonardo C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tam V
• Time in patent office: 977 Days
• Field of Search: 707/202, 707/1, 707/8, 707/10, 707/501, 707/513, 709/229, 709/239, 709/201, 709/217-219
• US Class Current: 707/711
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A content-indexing search system and method provides search results consistent with content filtering and blocking policies. The search system comprises a content-indexing search engine including a database coupled to an information network. A user provides search queries to the search engine through a gateway serving as a proxy server and cache and blocking engine. The blocking engine implements content filtering and blocking policies with respect to the search results. Alternative embodiments provide consistency between the results of the user content searches and the content filtering/blocking policies. One embodiment modifies the search engine to implement the same content blocking policy as the caching and filtering engine. Another embodiment modifies the search engine to build an indexing database by searching the caching and engine content. A third embodiment modifies the search engine to go through the cache and filter engine as the search engine builds its indexing database. A fourth embodiment modifies a search engine to go through a caching and filtering engine as it builds an indexing database.

Claims

1. A content-indexing search system providing search results consistent with content-filtering and blocking restrictions, comprising:

a content-indexing search engine including a database;

a content caching and blocking proxy server including a cache;

an information network coupled to the content-indexing search engine;

means for providing search queries to the content-indexing search engine and receiving search results from the cache;

a blocking engine coupled to the content-indexing search engine including a blocking rules table comprising at least one of the following;

a URL White List;

a URL Black List;

implementing content-filtering and blocking policies; and

means for modifying the content engine search engine to implement the same content-blocking policies as the blocking engine.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for implementing the blocking policies in the search content-indexing search engine during the content-indexing phase.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for implementing the blocking policy during an end user search results presentation phase.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising modifying the content engine search engine to build an indexing database by searching the cache content.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for modifying the content-indexing search engine to incorporate the cache and blocking engine results as the content-indexing search engine builds an indexing database.

14. The content-indexing search system of claim 1 further comprising:

PICs rules in the blocking table.

6. In a content-indexing search system including a content-indexing search engine coupled to a database and a cache;

an information network coupled to the contact-indexing search engine; and

a blocking engine including a blocking rules table comprising at least one of the following;

at URL white list, a URL black list and implementing content-filtering and blocking restrictions on search results provided to an end user through the cache, a method of providing the search results which are consistent with the content-filtering and blocking practices, comprising the steps of;

(a) altering the content-indexing search engine process to skip any information site URL that matches an exclusion pattern;

(b) altering the search content-indexing search engine process to search only sites or route content sources that match an explicit allowable information site URL list;

(c) implementing filtering policies in the content-indexing search engine are defined in the cache and the blocking engine by;

(i) importing the content-filtering rules from the caching and filtering engine at regular intervals or whenever a change is detected;

(ii) creating multiple indexing database trees and associating each tree with a user group as defined in the content filtering rules;

(iii) avoiding presentation to a user of any information site, URL or document that matches an exclusion pattern;

(iv) presenting only document/content pointers from sources that match an expressed allowable information site URL list; and

(v) presenting to the user only information network/content/documents that comply with filtering processes defined in the cache and the blocking engine by;

(aa) importing the content filtering roles from the caching and filtering engine at regular intervals or whenever a change is detected; and

(bb) presenting to the user only search results that are allowed by the filtering rules for that individual or group.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

(d) modifying the content engine scanning target to be a content caching storage rather than an information site/URL list; and

(e) traversing by APIs, database operations, and shared file operations a URL/content/document tree in the caching and blocking engine.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of:

(f) modifying the search engine content scanning and indexing process to be configured the same way as an end user browser.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of:

(g) modifying the content-indexing search engine to go through the cache as it builds an indexing database.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of:

(h) modifying the content search engine to build an indexing database by searching the cache.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

(i) connecting the content-indexing search engine to an internal network; and

(j) connecting the content-indexing search engine by an internal network operation.

12. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of connecting content-indexing search engine to an external network for providing consistency to an organizations content blocking policy.

13. The content-indexing search system of clam 1 further comprising:

blocking keywords in the blocking table.

15. A program medium, executable on a computer system, for blocking undesirable content received from a content-indexing search system comprising:

(a) program instruction altering the content-indexing search engine process to skip any information site URL that matches an exclusion pattern;

(b) program instructions altering the search content-indexing search engine process to search only sites or route content sources that match an explicit allowable information site URL list;

(c) program instructions presenting to a user only information network/content/documents that comply with filtering processes defined in the cache and the blocking engine by;

(d) program instructions importing the content filtering rules from the caching and filtering engine at regular intervals or whenever a change is detected; and

(e) program instructions presenting to the user only search results that are allowed by the filtering rules for that individual or group.