Patent ID: 7783718
Filing Date: 2010-08-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. At a computer system, the computer system included in a plurality of computer systems connected to a network, the computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for locating a service offered by the one or more of the plurality of computer systems, the method comprising: an act of receiving a query for locating services, the query including a string that represents a scope for a service to be located, the represented scope providing a contextual identification of the location of the service, the query having been generated from user-input search criteria indicating a desire to locate the service; an act of comparing the string representing the scope to a plurality of strings representing compiled scopes, each of the plurality of compiled scopes having been previously compiled from scope criteria representing an available service and a set of matching rules into a string, the set of matching rules selected from among a plurality of different sets of matching rules, each of the plurality of different sets of matching rules indicating how to locate services using a specified identification mechanism, from among a plurality of different identification mechanisms shared among the one or more computer systems; an act of identifying a computer system from among the plurality of computing systems as providing the service to be located based on the comparison of the string representing the scope to the plurality of strings representing the compiled scopes; and an act of providing a response to the query, the response identifying the computer system.