초록 ▼

A document search method using a plurality of databases available from one or more servers using one or more search engines. For each database, the number of records is determined and reported, as well as frequency of search query term occurances or hits, together with identification of database rec

A document search method using a plurality of databases available from one or more servers using one or more search engines. For each database, the number of records is determined and reported, as well as frequency of search query term occurances or hits, together with identification of database records corresponding to the hits. Reports from a plurality of databases are furnished to a user terminal, a client, where client software computes a relevance score for each record based upon the number of records in the database, the number of records having at least one hit and the number of hits for each record. This local computation from uniform data allows all documents to be ranked consistently as if coming from a single database.

대표청구항 ▼

A method for searching a plurality of diverse databases which are distributed over a network and accessible to a client through one or more search servers using a plurality of search engines each associated with a server storing a database comprising, obtaining, at the client from each search server

A method for searching a plurality of diverse databases which are distributed over a network and accessible to a client through one or more search servers using a plurality of search engines each associated with a server storing a database comprising, obtaining, at the client from each search server, statistical information about relevant documents resulting from application of a query to a database associated with a search engine, and computing, at the client, on a single pass, a relevance score for each document using said statistical information whereby the computed relevance score is used in determining how the relevant documents from diverse databases should be ordered in a list of merged relevant documents.