Patent ID: 8306974

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for ranking query results using mid-fold N-ary summation, comprising: receiving a first search phrase having a first plurality of search terms from a client device; executing a database query at a database based on the search phrase, wherein the database returns search results in response to the executing, and wherein each search result in the returned search results may contain one or more terms of the first plurality of search terms; computing a first relevance value for each search result in the returned search results using mid-fold N-ary summation based on a first value N, wherein the first value N is equivalent to a number of terms from the first plurality of search terms in each search result, and wherein the mid-fold N-ary summation is computed using a fixed number of operations regardless of a size of the first value N; ranking the returned search results from the database based on the computed first relevance value of each search result, wherein the ranking yields an exponential relationship between the number of search terms in each search result and the computed first relevance values of the returned search results; and transmitting the ranked search results to the client device, wherein the receiving, the executing, the computing, the ranking, and the transmitting are performed using one or more computing devices.