Patent ID: 7266553

Claim:
A computer system for searching and retrieving information from at least one content source containing multiple content entities, comprising: a build process for storing content information associated with the multiple content entities in a searchable content database comprising at least one index, wherein the content information includes text content information for the multiple content entities and further includes association information identifying relationships between different content entities and wherein the build process includes: creating an alt word table of the at least one content source; and apart from the alt word table, identifying and creating one or more associations between different content entities of the at least one content source; and a run-time process operative to receive at least one search term entered by a user and to process the at least one search term against the at least one index in the searchable content database to attempt to identify a first content entity as a first match in a search result, wherein the run-time process operates after the build process is complete, and wherein: if said alt word table includes at least one alternate word associated with the at least one search term, the run-time process is further operative to identify a second content entity as a second match between the alternate word and the index and to return at least one search result corresponding to the second match; and if search result corresponding to the first content entity or the second content entity has an associated other content entity, the run-time process is further operative to identify a third content entity as a third match between the at least one search term or alternate word and the third content entity, even though the third content entity does not include the at least one search term or the alternate word.