Method and system for updating a search engine

• US 6,763,362 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2001
• Issued: 07/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Round Rock Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: McKeeth, Jim
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones, Charles
• Application Number:
  US09/999,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20030105744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/3, 707/10, 707/100, 707/104.1, 709/203, 709/224, 370/229
• 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. 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 independent of user access to the plurality of said links and wherein the popularity is based, at least in part, on the frequency of retrieval of each of said plurality of said links by the search engine in response to a search request;

determining whether the popularity of the link exceeds a predetermined popularity threshold; and

updating information associated with the link, provided that the popularity exceeds the popularity threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining popularity comprises determining the number of times, during a predefined period of time, that the resource is actually accessed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein updating information comprises accessing at least a web page file supported by the resource.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the resource is configured to provide a web site associated with at least one of the plurality of links.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising communicating with a content server accessed via a computer network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the information associated with the link has changed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the age of the link.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the age of the link comprises determining the time difference between the time the link was last updated and the time at which the link is being considered for updating.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining whether the age of the link exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein updating information is performed provided that the age of the link exceeds the predetermined age threshold.

12. 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 independent of user access to the plurality of links and the popularity is based, at least in part, on the frequency of retrieval of said plurality of links by a search engine in response to a search request, and wherein the first module determines whether the popularity of the link exceeds a predetermined popularity threshold; and

a second module, operationally connected to the first module, that is configured to access the search engine database and the resource for updating information associated with the link, provided that the popularity exceeds the popularity threshold.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first module and second module comprises computer instructions executing on a processor.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a memory for storing a queue associated with at least one of the plurality of links for updating.

15. The system of claim 12, 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.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first module is further configured to determine the age of the link.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the second module comprises a robot and an indexer software.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the second module is configured to update the link provided that the age of the link exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the resource is configured to provide a web site associated with at least one of the plurality of links.

20. 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 popularity of each of the plurality of links at least partly independent of user access to the plurality of links and wherein the popularity is based, at least in part, on the frequency of retrieval of said plurality of links by the search engine in response to a search request;

means for determining whether the popularity of the link exceeds a predetermined popularity threshold; and

means for updating information associated with the link, wherein updating information is performed if the popularity exceeds the popularity threshold.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for determining the age of the link.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the updating means update information if the age of the link exceeds a predetermined age threshold.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein the updating means comprises means for accessing at least a web page file supported by the resource.

24. 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 independent of user access to the plurality of said links and wherein the popularity is based, at least in part, on the frequency of retrieval of said plurality of links by the search engine in response to a search request; and

updating information associated with at least one of the plurality of links, wherein the most popular link among not-yet-updated links of the plurality of links is selected first for updating.