Patent ID: 8306964

Claim:
A method, using a search engine system, for providing results to an analysis system, comprising: receiving at least one query that has been prepared to investigate at least one characteristic of the search engine system; supplying said at least one query to plural index servers; generating final results using the plural index servers based on said at least one query; and sending said final results from the plural index servers to the analysis system using an alternative data path, the alternative data path being different from a synchronous data path used to send search results to end users, wherein said generating of the final results comprises, with respect to each index server: providing original intermediate results that include plural original result items, the plural original result items identifying respective documents using original document identifiers; and transforming the original intermediate results into an instance of the final results by converting the original document identifiers into final document identifiers, by: ordering the plural original result items based on the original document identifiers, to provide ordered intermediate results; converting the original document identifiers in the ordered intermediate results into the final document identifiers, based on an order specified in the ordered intermediate results, to provide transformed results; and changing the order of the transformed results back into an original order specified by the original intermediate results, to provide the instance of the final results.