Patent ID: 7024405

Claim:
A software program comprising instructions, stored on a computer-readable media, wherein said instructions, when executed by a computer, perform the necessary steps for improved Internet meta-searching employing the execution of a plurality of search queries by a plurality of search engines, comprising: determining whether the internet is available; IF the internet is available, THEN, proceeding to said step of opening a topic tree; OTHERWISE, determining if an offline mode has been chosen; IF an offline mode has been chosen, THEN, displaying an indication that online mode is disabled; proceeding to said step of opening a topic tree; OTHERWISE, exiting the program; opening a topic tree or creating a new one if none exists; a first step of selecting either a topic or a folder of topics from which to search, from said topic tree; a second step of selecting a search topic; converting said selected search topic into a query string of requests ANDed together; storing said query strings into a queue; sending said queue to selected virtual meta-search engines; translating said queries to a format specific to that of said selected meta-search engines; executing a meta-search by said plurality of search engines; querying each of “n” said plurality of meta-search engines; determining whether said query has returned zero results; IF query returns zero results, THEN, removing child queries; OTHERWISE, parsing and storing said results in a database; determining whether there are more queries; IF there are more queries, THEN; returning to said step of querying each of “n” said plurality of search engines; OTHERWISE, waiting for each of “n” said plurality of search engines to complete their searching; retrieving stored results; and combining and ranking said results; presenting a summary page; retrieving individual documents; and printing said documents.