Patent ID: 7752326
Filing Date: 2010-07-06
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A system for searching at a client for content at a server or other content sources, comprising: a communication protocol that provides an asynchronous connection between each of a plurality of clients and a server, and allows each client to send, as part of a user session, a plurality of consecutive query strings to query the server for content; a requesting client of the plurality of clients, that provides an input field and that transmits to the server within the user session a plurality of queries to retrieve content from the server, wherein each of the plurality of queries are consecutive and form a lengthening query string for retrieving content from the server, and wherein each subsequent one of the plurality of queries extends the lengthening query string by one or more additional characters; and a server, which is configured to access one or more content sources that store content and that can be accessed by the server to respond to the queries from the clients, wherein the server further includes a unified query and result cache common to the plurality of clients and that stores previously determined results from the content sources, and wherein the server receives the queries from the requesting client, and in response to receiving each of the one or more additional characters in the lengthening query string as they are being entered at the input field