System and method for efficient control and capture of dynamic database content

• US 8,380,735 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Brightplanet Corp II, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Brightplanet Corp II, Inc.
• Inventors: Bushee, William J., Tiahrt, Thomas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Xue, Belinda
• Application Number:
  US12/648,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20100174706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,149 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system and method for efficient control and capture of dynamic database content for rapidly providing a user with a highly relevant collection of documents related to a query. The system and method for efficient control and capture of dynamic database content includes a computer system with a storage means for facilitating the retention and recall of dynamic database content and a communications means for facilitating bi-directional communication of the computer system with local or distributed networks; an executory module operationally coupled to the computer system for controlling the storage means and the communications means as well as directing the system for the efficient control and capture of dynamic database content to a plurality of pre-selected Internet sites; and a capture module which is in communication with the executory module and facilitates selection of the plurality of Internet sites associated with a query submitted by a user of the system.

Claims

1. A method for efficiently controlling and capturing dynamic database content comprising:

obtaining a query from a user, said query to be used to search for relevant information in a specified area of subject matter;

pre-processing said query, including;

obtaining a database search listing, said database search listing identifying a plurality of candidate databases determined to be relevant for specified areas of subject matter, and format information indicating a query format to be used for querying at least one of the candidate databases;

comparing said query to said database search listing to determine best matches from among the candidate databases, the matches representing a set of most relevant databases to submit said query;

routing said query to the set of most relevant databases, including formatting said query based on the format information such that each one of said most relevant databases uses said query to locate relevant information for the user;

obtaining results from each one of said set of most relevant databases;

processing said results; and

storing said results for use and analysis by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said pre-processing further comprises:

building a query queue to store each one of a plurality of queries until each one of said queries is routed to said plurality of databases;

queuing said plurality of queries to be submitted to each one of said set of most relevant databases; and

routing each query in turn to each one of said set of most relevant databases.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing said results further comprises:

obtaining an exclusion list detailing terms, phrases, and sources to be excluded from responses to said query;

comparing each responses associated with said query to said exclusion list;

deleting any responses which match terms, phrases, and sources on said exclusion list.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing said results further comprises:

obtaining an inclusion list detailing terms, phrases, and sources which must be contained in each response to said query;

comparing each response associated with said query to said inclusion list;

deleting any response which does not include terms, phrases, and sources on said inclusion list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing said results further comprises:

scoring each document returned from each of said databases for relevance compared to said query;

recording a plurality of scores, each score associated with one of said responses from each one of said plurality of databases;

obtaining a minimum acceptable score for narrowing the documents to be considered;

comparing each one of said plurality of scores with said minimum acceptable score; and

deleting documents which have an associated score numerically less than said minimum acceptable score.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein routing said query to the set of most relevant databases, and obtaining the results from each one of said set of most relevant databases includes executing a plurality of distinct threads, each thread corresponding to a different one of the databases of said set of most relevant databases.