Patent ID: 7330857

Claim:
A search engine for searching a collection of documents, the search engine comprising: at least one dispatch node, the at least one dispatch node being effective to receive and forward a search query from a user of the search engine; a plurality of search nodes, coupled to the dispatch node, the search nodes each being effective to receive the search query from a respective dispatch node, and to process the search query using a searching algorithm; and at least one indexing node, coupled to the search nodes, the at least one indexing node effective to create a respective partition-dependent data set for a respective search node; wherein the search nodes are logically arranged in a table and stored in a computerized memory, the table comprising a plurality of columns and a plurality of a rows, each search node in one of the rows of search nodes including a distinct partition-dependent data set so that a sum of the data sets of all the search nodes in a row yields the collection of documents, and every respective search node in one of the columns of search nodes include substantially the same partition-dependent data set.