Process and system for searching webpages within a website

• US 6,625,644 B1
• Filed: 05/11/2000
• Issued: 09/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Genworth Holdings, Inc. (Genworth Financial Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: GE Financial Assurance Holdings Incorporated (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: Zaras, David S
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, David Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/568,575
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system and method for performing an internal search of a website using a portion of an address. A requester transmits an address, such as a universal resource locator (URL) address, comprising a website portion and a webpage portion. If the address, with the webpage portion, does not correspond to a particular webpage in the website, a search of the website is performed based on the webpage portion. Results of the search are displayed to the requester, such as in the form of links to webpages within the website. The requester may activate the appropriate link to access the desired page.

Claims

1. A process for searching for a webpage within a website comprising a plurality of webpages, the process comprising the steps of:

receiving from a requester an address comprising a website component and a webpage component, wherein the website component identifies the website and the webpage component does not identify any of the plurality of webpages within the website;

performing a search within the website based on the webpage component; and

transmitting the search results to the requester.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein a portion of the address comprises at least part of a universal resource locator address.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein the results further comprise at least one link to a webpage located within the website.

4. The process according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at least one selection based on the search results; and

transmitting appropriate information based on the at least one selection.

5. The process according to claim 4, wherein:

a) the search results comprise at least one webpage link;

b) the at least one selection is an activation of at least one webpage link; and

c) the appropriate information is the webpage corresponding to the at least one webpage link.

6. The process according to claim 1, wherein the step of performing the search further comprises performing the search with a search engine internal within the website.

7. The process according to claim 1, wherein the step of performing the search further comprises performing the search with a search engine external to the website.

8. A process for searching for a webpage within a website comprising a plurality of webpages, the process comprising the steps of:

transmitting an address to a central controller module, the address comprising a website component and a webpage component, wherein the website component identifies to the website and the webpage component does not identify any of the plurality of webpages;

performing a search within the website based on the webpage component where the search is performed at the central controller module; and

receiving search results from the central controller module, where the search results are based on an internal search of the website based on the webpage component.

9. The process according to claim 8, wherein a portion of the address comprises at least part of a universal resource locator address.

10. The process according to claim 8, wherein the results further comprise at least one link to a webpage located within the website.

11. The process according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting at least one selection based on the search results; and

receiving appropriate information based on the at least one selection.

12. The process according to claim 11, wherein:

a) the search results comprise at least one webpage link;

b) the at least one selection is an activation of at least one webpage link; and

c) the appropriate information is the webpage corresponding to the at least one webpage link.

13. The process according to claim 8, wherein the search results are received from a search performed with a search engine internal within the website.

14. The process according to claim 8, wherein the search results are received from a search performed with a search engine external to the website.

15. A system for searching for a webpage within a website comprising a plurality of webpages, the system comprising:

a receiver module for receiving from a requester an address comprising a website component and a webpage component, wherein the website component identifies to the website and the webpage component does not identify any of the plurality of webpages;

a central controller module for performing a search of the website based on the webpage component; and

a transmitter module for transmitting the search results to the requester.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein a portion of the address comprises at least part of a universal resource locator address.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the results further comprise at least one link to a webpage located within the website.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein:

the receiver module further receives at least one selection based on the search results; and

the transmitter module further transmits appropriate information based on the at least one selection.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein:

a) the search results comprise at least one webpage link;

b) the at least one selection is an activation of at least one webpage link; and

c) the appropriate information is the webpage corresponding to the at least one webpage link.

20. The system according to claim 15, wherein performing the search further comprises performing the search with a search engine internal within the website.

21. The system according to claim 15, wherein performing the search further comprises performing the search with a search engine external to the website.