Patent ID: 7783689

Claim:
A method of providing index information to a computing device having a search engine capable of searching a local data store, that is local to the computing device, comprising: providing a first index builder, that is remote from the computing device, the first index builder accessing a first set of remote sites, remote from the computing device, over a wide area network to retrieve and analyze data from the first set of remote sites and create a first index of data stored on the first set of remote sites; building the first index at the first index builder; communicating the first index from the first index builder to a first data distribution network, the first data distribution network being remote from the first index builder and from the computing device and from the first set of remote sites; communicating the first index from the first data distribution network to the local data store on the computing device so the first index is searchable by the search engine on the computing device, the computing device implementing a user interface for the user to input a query and receive search results; providing a second index builder remote from the first index builder and the computing device, accessing a second set of remote sites over the wide area network, wherein the second index builder accesses sites not accessed by the first index builder, to retrieve and analyze data from the second set of remote sites to create second index data that indexes information on the second set of remote sites and wherein the second index builder communicates the index data to the local data store on the computing device to update the first index; intermittently accessing the first and second sets of remote sites with the first and second index builders, respectively; generating, at the first and second index builders, updated index data indicative of incremental updates to the first index; receiving, in response to a request from the computing device, the updated index data at the local data store on the computing device; updating the first index, with the updated index data, to obtain an updated first index on the computing device; communicating the first index and updated index data from the first data distribution network to a second data distribution network remote from the first data distribution network; and communicating the first index and updated index data from the second data distribution network to another local data store on another computing device.