Patent Document ID: 6070176
Application ID: 08790537

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of representing data, the method comprising the steps of: receiving results of a first search of data distributed among a plurality of computers on a network, the results corresponding to user-provided search criteria, the results including a plurality of sets of data; automatically refining said results of the first search based on relevance of each of the sets of data to the user-provided search criteria by performing a content examination of said results; generating a ranking of the plurality of sets of data based on results of said refining; generating a map of the sets of data, the map for visually indicating the ranking, wherein the map includes a plurality of objects, each of the objects representing one of the data sets; and causing the map to be displayed on a display device, the map having a three-dimensional appearance, such that the ranking is indicated by the apparent relative positioning of the objects in three dimensions.

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Claim 4:
4. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sets of data comprises a plurality of World Wide Web pages, such that each of the objects represents one of the World Wide Web pages.