Patent ID: 7136851

Claim:
A method in a computer system for searching web databases, the method comprising: providing of mapping of attribute and attribute value pairs to web databases that contain the attribute and attribute value pairs, the mapping being generated by sampling the web databases; receiving an unstructured query having terms; identifying, from the unstructured query, terms that are attribute terms that correspond to an attribute of a web database; identifying, from the unstructured query, terms that are attribute value terms that correspond to an attribute value of a web database; for each pair of identified attribute terms and identified attribute value terms, formulating a query with an attribute corresponding to the identified attribute term set to the identified attribute value term; and when the mapping indicates that a web database has an attribute and an attribute value pair that corresponds to the pair of the identified attribute term and the identified attribute value term used to formulate the query, submitting the formulated query to the web database.