Patent ID: 8843507

Claim:
A method for serving multiple search indexes comprising: running a first search service and a second search service on a processor, the first search service and second search service having different ranking algorithms, configuring the processor to access a subset of document chunks associated with the first search service that are less than a first full set of document chunks associated with the first search service without accessing other document chunks of the first full set of document chunks and a subset of document chunks associated with the second search service that are less than a second full set of document chunks associated with the second search service without accessing other document chunks of the second full set of document chunks, the first full set of document chunks associated with the first search service being defined as a set of document chunks corresponding to documents included in at least one inverted index associated with the first search service, and the second full set of document chunks associated with the second search service being defined as a set of document chunks corresponding to documents included in at least one inverted index associated with the second search service; receiving at least a portion of a search query; selecting a search service from the first and second search services for responding to the at least a portion of a search query; processing the at least a portion of a search query using the selected search service to generate, using the processor, a plurality of responsive documents based on the subset of document chunks associated with the selected search service; and forwarding the plurality of responsive documents to an aggregator associated with the selected search service; combining, using the aggregator, the plurality of responsive documents with other pluralities of responsive documents associated with the selected search service, the other pluralities of responsive documents being generated using processors other than the processor in the processing of the at least the portion of the search query using the selected search service.