Patent ID: 8521724

Claim:
A method of processing a search query to provide a search result, the method comprising receiving at a computer device a search query message, the search query message identifying a source node and a target node; responsive to receiving the search query message, accessing a data structure, wherein each landmark node identified within the data structure has stored therewith a shortest path tree in the form of a set of parent links, wherein each parent link identifies an adjacent vertex node; for each landmark node, identifying a location of the source node and a location of the target node in the shortest path trees to the landmark node; for each landmark node, generating a measure of distance between the source node and the target node based, at least in part, on said identified locations; determining the landmark node with the shortest distance; and providing a search result related to the shortest path tree of that landmark node, wherein generating a measure of distance comprises: identifying a common ancestor node in the shortest path trees from the source node and the target node to the landmark node; identifying all pairs of nodes in a first path between the source node and the common ancestor node and a second path between the common ancestor node and the target node; locating any of said pairs which are edges; identifying an edge of the shortest distance; and using the identified edge to determine the measure of distance between the source node and the target node.