Index cards on network hosts for searching, rating, and ranking

• US 7,133,870 B1
• Filed: 11/21/2000
• Issued: 11/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MEC Management, LLC (Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota)
• Original Assignee: Al Acquisitions Incorporated
• Inventors: Duguay, Claude E., Tripp, Gary W., Meadway, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham, John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lu, Kuen S.
• Application Number:
  US09/718,531
• Time in Patent Office: 2,177 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/1, 707/6, 707/7, 707/103.R, 707/5
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• 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

Instead of using a central site including spidering software to recursively search all linked web pages and generate a search index of the Internet, index cards files are created and stored on each web site to provide meta data in the form of conceptual or non-keyword information about the site, such as demographics and categorization information. The meta data is periodically collected and aggregated on a central server. A central catalog of object references is compiled on the central site from the meta data reported from each web site. The information from the index cards is utilized in constructing the central catalog so that more accurate search results may be generated for search queries applied to the catalog, so that the search results may be ranked in meaningful ways, and so that web sites may be more accurately rated.

Claims

1. A method of constructing a catalog of rankings from objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with one computer storing the catalog and being designated a cataloging site and at least two other computers storing a plurality of objects and being designated source sites, the method comprising:

a) receiving inputs from users of each of the two or more source sites mapping one or more of the plurality of objects to one or more user defined descriptors associated with a category of descriptors;

b) storing the inputs in an index file

c) running on each source site a program which assembles data relating to objects stored on the source site;

d) ranking at least some of the assembled data as a function of a set of ranking rules and the index file, thereby assigning rankings to the assembled data;

e) transmitting the rankings from each source site to the cataloging site; and

f) aggregating the rankings at the cataloging site to generate a catalog of rankings,

wherein at least one of the rankings relates to a set of objects on the source site and

wherein an agent calculates a relationship value representing a distance in text between objects and, at the cataloging site, these relationship values are combined with relationship values from other sites to create a relationship value table representing the likelihood of an object being similar to another object.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the rankings has a value that is function of one of the one or more user defined descriptors associated with one or more objects with which the ranking is associated.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein some of the assembled data comprises data from the content of objects on the source site.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein some of the assembled data comprises meta data relating to objects on the source site.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each transmitted ranking is accompanied by a command to the cataloging site instructing the cataloging site what to do with the ranking.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the program further assembles object references for objects on the source site, and these object references are transmitted to the cataloging site and aggregated into the catalog on the cataloging site.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the program further transmits to the cataloging site some of the assembled data which is aggregated into the catalog on the cataloging site.

8. A method of rating objects stored at a site on a network and constructing a catalog of ratings, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with access to the objects, the method comprising:

a) receiving inputs from a host of the site mapping one or more of the objects to one or more host defined descriptors associated with a category of descriptors;

b) storing the inputs in an index file;

c) running on the site a program which processes objects stored on the site, thereby assembling values found in at least one of the objects for comparison to a list of rating values;

d) generating a rating for each object by relating the values found in the object to the list of rating values;

e) aggregating the ratings to generate the catalog of ratings;

f) comparing the values found in the object to the host defined descriptors mapped to the objects in the index file; and

g) generating a category indication for a result of a search based on the catalog of ratings.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein each of the rating values comprises a word.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the rating values are supplied by a human.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the rating values are supplied by a computer.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein generating a rating comprises generating a ratings flag when the values found in the object indicate a first rating for the object and at least one of the values from an owner of the site or a host of the site indicates a second rating for the object different than the first rating.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein aggregating ratings includes triggering a human review indicator for review by a human of objects having flags to determine the correct ratings for the objects.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein aggregating ratings includes triggering a computer review of objects having rating flags to determine the correct ratings for the objects.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of processing objects comprises processing meta data for the objects.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein the list of ratings values is stored on the site.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein the list of ratings values is stored on a second site.

18. A computer program product residing on a computer-readable medium for performing a method of constructing a catalog of rankings from objects stored within a network, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with one computer storing the catalog and being designated a cataloging site and at least two other computers storing a plurality of objects and being designated source sites, the computer program product performs the steps comprising:

a) receiving inputs from a host of the site mapping one or more of the objects to one or more user defined descriptors associated with a category of descriptors;

b) storing the inputs in an index file

c) running on each source site a program which assembles data relating to objects stored on the source site;

d) ranking at least some of the assembled data as a function of a set of ranking rules and the index file, thereby assigning rankings to the assembled data;

e) transmitting the rankings from each source site to the cataloging site; and

f) aggregating the rankings at the cataloging site to generate a catalog of rankings,

wherein at least one of the rankings relates to a set of objects on the source site and

wherein an agent calculates a relationship value representing a distance in text between objects and, at the cataloging site, these relationship values are combined with relationship values from other sites to create a relationship value table representing the likelihood of an object being similar to another object.

19. A product of claim 18, wherein some of the assembled data comprises data from the content of objects on the source site.

20. A product of claim 18, wherein some of the assembled data comprises meta data relating to objects on the source site.

21. A product of claim 18, wherein each transmitted ranking is accompanied by a command to the cataloging site instructing the cataloging site what to do with the ranking.

22. A product of claim 18, wherein the program further assembles object references for objects on the source site, and these object references are transmitted to the cataloging site and aggregated into the catalog on the cataloging site.

23. A product of claim 18, wherein the program further transmits to the cataloging site some of the assembled data which is aggregated into the catalog on the cataloging site.

24. A computer program product residing on a computer-readable medium for performing a method of rating objects stored at a site on a network and constructing a catalog of ratings, the network including a plurality of interconnected computers with access to the objects, the method comprising:

a) receiving inputs from a host of the site mapping one or more of the objects to one or more user defined rating values;

b) storing the inputs in an index file

c) running on the site a program which processes objects stored on the site, thereby assembling values found in at least one of the objects for comparison to a list of rating values;

d) generating a rating for each object by relating the values found in the object to a list of human input rating values supplied by an owner of the site and stored in a file associated with the site which file is read by said program;

e) aggregating the ratings to generate the catalog of ratings; and

f) comparing the values found in the object to the user defined rating values.

25. A product of claim 24, wherein each of the rating values comprises a word.

26. A product of claim 24, wherein the rating values are supplied by a human.

27. A product of claim 24, wherein the rating values are supplied by a computer.

28. A product of claim 24, wherein additional human input rating values are supplied by a host of the site and stored in said file.

29. A product of claim 24, wherein generating a rating comprises generating a ratings flag when the values found in the object indicate a first rating for the object at least one of the values from an owner of the site or a host of the site indicates a second rating for the object different than the first rating.

30. A product of claim 24, wherein aggregating ratings include triggering a human review indicator for review by a human of objects having flags to determine the correct ratings for the objects.

31. A product of claim 24, wherein aggregating ratings includes triggering a computer review of objects having rating flags to determine the correct ratings for the objects.

32. A product of claim 24, wherein the step of processing objects comprises processing meta data for the objects.

33. A product of claim 24, wherein the list of ratings values is stored on the site.

34. A product of claim 24, wherein the list of ratings values is stored on a second site.