Patent ID: 7424510

Claim:
A server based search system, comprising: a Web server in communication with a client browser via one or more networks; script code, which when executed by the client browser, that is configured to: generate in a browser display area a search mode interface including a search field, a list area for displaying a list of search result items, and a view area for displaying the contents of a selected search result item; detect characters entered into the search field; detect deletions of characters from the search field; transmit information to the Web server related to entered characters and deleted characters each time a character is entered to the search field or deleted from the search field; display search results received from the Web server; automatically retrieve Web pages corresponding to at least a portion of the search results; display at least a first retrieved Web page in the view area at least partly in response to a selection of an item in the search results; and detect when a user has scrolled to a second item in the list area and to display in the view area at least a portion of a Web page corresponding to the second item, wherein the Web page corresponding to the second item was automatically retrieved by the client browser from a remote Web site prior to the user scrolling to the second item; a search module configured to incrementally search for content based on the information transmitted by the browser and to generate search results including at least a first item; and wherein, the Web server is configured to transmit the script code embedded in HTML code and to transmit search results to the browser.