Patent ID: 8583617

Claim:
A method of initiating a search of at least a subset of network resources, the method comprising: receiving at a server a request, from a client device associated with a user, the request having been initiated by the user via the client device to initiate a search, the request comprising at least one search term; identifying by the server, based on the request, first and second network resources of a plurality of network resources to which to direct a search request based on the at least one search term, the first network resource being different than the second network resource; providing identification of the first and second network resources to the client device, causing, based on the providing of the identification of the first and second network resources to the client device, the client device to originate a search request, based on the at least one search term, from the client device to all of the identified first and second network resources independent of the server prior to receiving any results from any of the network resources; receiving at the server, via the client device, a result based on the search request from each of the first and second network resources in response to the search requests; processing the received results; providing the processed results to the client device for presentation to the user; identifying at least one other client device available to originate a search request, based on the at least one search term, for transmission to at least one network resource of the plurality of network resources; providing identification of a third network resource to the at least one other client device; and causing, automatically, the at least one other client device to originate a search request, based on the at least one search term, for transmission to the third network resource, wherein the identifying further comprises determining one or more network resources of the plurality of network resources that are more likely to provide relevant results than other network resources of the plurality of network resources in response to a search request for the at least one search term, and wherein the identifying further comprises identifying a search context and determining one or more network resources of the plurality of network resources that are more likely to provide relevant results than other network resources of the plurality of network resources in response to a search request for the at least one search term in relation to the search context.