Patent Document ID: 8959077
Application ID: 13428709

Base Claim:
1. One or more computer hardware memory devices storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method of deeming that a document is relevant to a search query, the method comprising: receiving by a search engine the search query including a search term, wherein the search engine includes a plurality of computing devices that each process a respective set of documents, wherein each computing device of the plurality of computing devices comprises a term-index lookup table, a term index, a per-document-index lookup table, and a per-document index, wherein the term index includes a plurality of term postings, each term posting including a respective term and a document identifier of each document deemed relevant to the respective term; and wherein each term posting omits information indicating locations at which the respective term is found in each document; determining that one or more documents are relevant to the search term by reviewing the plurality of term postings and finding a match between the search term and at least one of the respective terms; determining a search-result rank of the one or more documents determined to be relevant by using the document identifier of each document access a per-document index lookup table, which maps each document identifier to document-ranking information in the per-document index, and by ranking the one or more documents according to the document-ranking information retrieved from the per-document index for each document, wherein the per-document index organizes the document-ranking information relevant to a document into a per-document index header, a term-to-ID mapping, and a document-specific term index; wherein the term-to-ID mapping maps the search term to a unique identifier that identifies the search term in the document-specific term index; and wherein the document-specific term index stores position information that describes one or more positions of the search term in the document and that is used to determine the search-result rank of the document; and serving search results in which a listing of the one or more documents that are ranked are presented consistent with the search-result rank.

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Claim 6:
6. The one or more computer memory devices of claim 1 , wherein for each term posting includes a term frequency value for each document indicating a number of times the search term is found in the document.