Patent Document ID: 7792789
Application ID: 11874122

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for collaboratively searching for stored documents related to an organization, the method comprising: creating a collaborative document, wherein multiple users can add search criteria to the collaborative document; posting the collaborative document to a collaborative shared logical location accessible by multiple users; receiving at least a first search criterion from a first user computer and adding and saving the first search criterion to the collaborative document; receiving at least a second search criterion from a second user computer and adding and saving the second search criterion to the same collaborative document, wherein the first and second user computers are geographically separated; performing a search of the stored documents based on the collaborative document containing the first and second search criteria to create one or more search results that identify stored documents, wherein the search of the stored documents includes a search of an online index that stores metadata for both online and offline documents, wherein offline documents include documents stored in secondary copies, including copies stored in backups, in archive copies, or in a tape library, wherein some or all of the offline documents contain data that is no longer available on a local area network of the organization, and wherein the online index stores data at least identifying an existence and location of both the online and offline documents; and providing the one or more search results that identify stored documents, wherein the provided search results include an indication of a location of at least one offline document.

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Claim 2:
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein posting the collaborative document comprises sending a link to the collaborative document via email to multiple users.