Patent ID: 7031961

Claim:
A method for searching an information repository, the repository characterized as a hierarchical object space, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a collection of shared content pointers, each shared content pointer corresponding to an object; receiving at least one query keyword; searching at least a portion of the collection of shared content pointers in accordance with the keyword query; deriving at least one additional keyword from the collection, the additional keyword associated with the query keyword; augmenting the query with at the least one additional keyword derived from the collection; searching the information repository in accordance with the augmented query; retrieving a group of objects that match the augmented query; identifying a context within the group of objects; ordering the group of retrieved objects based a computed match with the context; and ordering the group of retrieved content pointers in a ranking order, the order determined by a weighted set of user metrics, wherein the set of user metrics are chosen from a group consisting of a popularity metric, a frequency of access metric, a recency of access metric, and a link structure metric.