Patent ID: 7606793

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for performing a search of a plurality of documents stored in a network of computing devices based on a query, the method comprising: generating at least two scope-related index keys, wherein each of the scope-related index keys is generated according to a scope attribute of at least a portion of the plurality of documents; generating one or more content-related index keys associated with a content of the plurality of documents, wherein the scope attribute is based on information other than the content of the plurality of documents; generating one or more compound scope-related index keys associated with one or more combinations of the at least two scope-related index keys; generating an index including: a first document list identifying a first subset of the plurality of documents that correspond to the at least two scope-related index keys; a second document list identifying a second subset of the plurality of documents that correspond to the one or more content-related index keys; and a third document list identifying a third subset of the plurality of documents that correspond to the one or more compound scope-related index keys; storing the index on at least one computing device in the network; receiving a query that identifies at least one or more of: a first content-related index key of the one or more content-related index keys, a first scope-related index key of the at least two scope-related index keys, and a first compound scope-related index key of the one or more compound scope-related index keys; and providing results to the query by: in response to the query including the first scope-related index key, searching the first document list to identify one or more of the plurality of documents that correspond to the first scope-related index key; in response to the query including the first content-related index key, searching the second document list to identify one or more of the plurality of documents that correspond to the first content-related index key; in response to the query including the first compound scope-related index key, searching the third document list to identify one or more of the plurality of documents that correspond to the first compound scope-related index key; and generating results to the query based on the searching of at least one or more of the first document list, the second document list, and the third document list.