Patent ID: 6167397
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for clustering electronic documents in response to a search query, the method comprising the steps of:collecting a first set of electronic documents, each containing at least one occurrence of a first keyword from the search query;collecting a second set of electronic documents each containing at least one occurrence of a second keyword from the search query;combining said first set of electronic documents and said second set of electronic documents to create a collection of electronic documents, each electronic document in said collection containing at least one occurrence of a keyword from the search query;analyzing each electronic document in said collection to determine a content characteristic in a predefined neighborhood adjacent to at least one of said keywords from the search query;comparing content characteristics of each document in said collection of electronic documents to content characteristics of other documents in said collection; andcreating a plurality of clusters of electronic documents, at least one cluster including at least two of said electronic documents in said collection of documents, wherein in a given cluster the electronic documents have overlapping content beyond a commonality of keywords from the search query.