Patent Document ID: 8131755
Application ID: 12494181

Base Claim:
1. A computer implemented method for accessing information from a plurality of searchable information sources, comprising: analyzing a search query to determine subject matter of the query; and selecting a subset of information sources from the plurality of information sources based upon the subject matter of the query; wherein the subject matter of the query is derived by comparing the search query against a knowledge-base, the knowledge base including a taxonomy of subject matters and a set of terms for at least some of the respective subject matters, the set of terms representing information likely to be found in the respective subject matters, and wherein comparing includes comparing at least portions of the search query against the sets of terms in the knowledge base to determine the respective subject matters of matching terms.

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Claim 11:
11. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein: another criteria includes comparing at least a portion of the search query against a plurality of entity lists; each entity list including a list of phrases corresponding to one or more subject matters; and wherein comparing includes matching a phrase in an entity list against at least a portion of the search query, and upon a match, returning a subject matter corresponding to the match in the entity list.