Patent ID: 6275820
Filing Date: 2001-08-14
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for searching heterogeneous information resources using a user query within a distributed computer system, said method comprising the steps of:receiving, at a metasearch engine on a host computer within said distributed computer system, a plurality of search engine results in response to respective queries to each of a corresponding plurality of search engines, said search engine results being generated from said heterogeneous information resources;selecting, within said metasearch engine, a given plurality of relevant search engine results from respective ones of said plurality of search engines;retrieving, from said respective ones of said search engines, respective original documents corresponding to said given plurality of relevant search engine results, each of the relevant search engine results being a portion of a respective original document, said respective original document including at least one of the following: full text or multimedia data;downloading said retrieved respective documents to said host computer;evaluating said downloaded respective documents pursuant to the original content of each of said downloaded respective documents;summarizing said evaluated respective documents pursuant to the respective contents of each said evaluated respective document and to an original query pattern; andranking said evaluated respective documents pursuant to the content of each of said evaluated respective documents, original ranks of said given plurality of relevant search engine results, and to an original query pattern, said ranking generating final ranks for said evaluated respective documents.