Patent ID: 7277918

Claim:
A process for metasearching on a distributed network activated by a request executed by a user on a client device to request a metasearch engine to send a plurality of search queries to a plurality of server devices, each of the plurality of search queries comprising a keyword phrase, each of the keyword phrases comprising at least one keyword specified in the request by the user, at least two of the keyword phrases of the plurality of search queries being different from each other, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving, at the metasearch engine, the request from the client device for the metasearch engine to send the plurality of search queries comprising the at least two keyword phrases to the plurality of server devices; (b) sending, by the metasearch engine, the plurality of search queries comprising the at least two keyword phrases to the plurality of server devices; (c) receiving, at the metasearch engine, search results from the plurality of server devices in response to the plurality of search queries comprising the at least two keyword phrases sent to the plurality of server devices; (d) incorporating, by the metasearch engine, the received search results into at least two different display lists corresponding to the at least two different keyword phrases, wherein: each different one of the at least two different display lists comprises the received search results in response to the plurality of search queries comprising a different one of the at least two keyword phrases, each same one of the at least two different display lists comprises the received search results therein in response to the plurality of search queries comprising a same one of the at least two keyword phrases; (e) incorporating, by the metasearch engine, the at least two different display lists of received search results into a response for communicating to the client device; (f) communicating, by the metasearch engine, the response from the metasearch engine to the client device.