Patent Document ID: 7580942
Application ID: 11652733

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing an output indicative of an evaluation of a strength of association of a query relative to a collection of listings stored in an index, the method comprising: utilizing a computer processor that is a functional component of the computer, to generate an indexing file that contains a listing of individual features of the listings in the index, wherein each individual feature in said listing is represented in the indexing file by a unique feature identifier such that each individual feature in said listing is uniquely identified, wherein generating the indexing file such that the indexing file includes, for each of the individual features in said listing, a set of score that represent strengths of correlation between the individual feature and each listing in the index; utilizing the indexing file as a basis for creating a ranking of the listings in the index, the ranking being prioritized based on a degree of strength of association with the query; identifying a sub-set of listings in the index that as determined by the ranking and a degree of strength of association relative to the query; providing listings in the index that are likely correspond to the query; at least one particular listing in the index is excluded from being a comparison of features in the query with features in the one particular listing; identifying a plurality of query features associated with the query; assigning one of said unique query identifiers to each of the plurality of query features; cross referencing, into the indexing file, the unique query identifiers assigned to each of the plurality of query features; and creating a ranking that factors a set of scores included in the indexing file with the cross referenced unique query identifiers.

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Claim 3:
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of creating a ranking further comprises creating a ranking of listings in the index further comprises creating the ranking through a computation that factors in said score for the individual features in said listing.