Patent ID: 7730531

Claim:
A system for detecting artificially generated load on a search system, the system including a processor and a computer storage medium and comprising: a load monitoring component for monitoring a current load for comparison with an expected load, wherein load comprises search queries received from users per unit time; an abnormality detection component for detecting an abnormal load, wherein the current load is compared to the expected load, and wherein an abnormality is detected when the current load exceeds the expected load by a predetermined threshold; and an analysis component for determining if the detected abnormal load includes an artificial load, the analysis component including a cache hit ratio component and a cache trajectory component, wherein the cache hit ratio component: determines a current cache hit ratio, cache hit ratio being a ratio of a number of search queries for which the search system returns results from a search system cache to a number of search queries for which the search system returns results from an index system, compares the current cache hit ratio to an average cache hit ratio for the search system, and determines that the detected abnormality is artificial if the current cache hit ratio is a predetermined amount below the average cache hit ratio, and wherein the cache trajectory component: determines a cache trajectory, cache trajectory being a rate of change of cache hit ratio for the search system over a period of time. compares the cache trajectory to a predetermined threshold, and determines that the detected abnormal load is artificial if the cache trajectory is greater than the predetermined threshold.