초록 ▼

The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented method and apparatus for searching in response to Internet-based search queries using a search engine and an electronic database. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, data sets representing published items are input

The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented method and apparatus for searching in response to Internet-based search queries using a search engine and an electronic database. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, data sets representing published items are input, for example, scanned-in or sent electronically, and stored in a searchable database. Each data set includes text from at least one published item. Responsive to the search query, a search engine searches for and identifies relevant web pages and data sets representing published items and, in a more specific embodiment, ranked characterizations are returned for the relevant web pages and published items. An electronic path can be provided with the published item for accessing further information about the published item. In one embodiment, the electronic path is a hyperlink from a characterization of a relevant published item to a more complete electronic representation of the relevant published item. Publishers provide authorization to display copyrighted materials through a permission protocol.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing, in a searchable database, content data sets representing printed items from publications respectively printed by a plurality of respective publishers, where each of the content data sets includes text from at least one of the

What is claimed is: 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing, in a searchable database, content data sets representing printed items from publications respectively printed by a plurality of respective publishers, where each of the content data sets includes text from at least one of the printed items; storing advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the printed items, where the advertisement data sets are different from the content data sets and include data for linking to information about at least one product or service corresponding to the advertisements; storing an index representing information included in a plurality of web documents; receiving a search query; identifying one or more relevant web documents and one or more relevant printed items based on a search of the index and the content data sets using the search query; identifying one or more advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the relevant printed items; generating an integrated ranked listing comprising at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant web documents and at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items, where the at least one characterization of the at least one of the relevant printed items includes data directing a search engine to update advertisement information associated with the at least one of the relevant printed items; and for said at least one of the relevant printed items, providing at least one of: an electronic reference for accessing further information, or a link to information about a product represented in one of the advertisements represented in the identified one or more advertisement data sets. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the printed items, that are represented by the stored content data sets, comprise copyrighted printed items. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: executing a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization to provide additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the advertisement data sets further comprises: storing data related to presenting information about a product represented in one of the advertisements. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items further comprises data from at least one of the advertisement data sets representing at least one advertisement printed with the at least one of the relevant printed items. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data from the at least one of the advertisement data sets representing the at least one advertisement further comprises data representing: data for displaying information about the at least one product represented in the at least one advertisement. 7. The method of claim 1, further including electronically scanning the printed items and generating scanned printed items, and wherein the content data sets represent the scanned printed items. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the scanned printed items comprise copyrighted printed items, the method further including: executing a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization over the Internet that permits a search engine to present additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items, the authorization being based on the electronic reference for accessing further information for said at least one of the relevant printed items. 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the scanned printed items comprise copyrighted printed items, the method further including: executing a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization over the Internet that permits a search engine to present additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items, the authorization being in response to a representative of the publisher submitting the search query and, in response the search engine providing the electronic reference for accessing further information for said at least one of the relevant printed items. 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing an index of the content data sets in a searchable database. 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: configuring each content data set to be displayed as a replica of the corresponding printed item. 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing an index of the content data sets in a searchable database, wherein the integrated ranked listing includes a hyperlink associated with an entry in the index corresponding to another representation of one of the printed items. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the electronic reference for accessing further information includes providing at least one hyperlink that, when acted upon, links said at least one of the relevant printed items to a complete electronic representation of the relevant printed items. 14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the electronic reference for accessing further information further includes providing at least one hyperlink that, when acted upon, links said at least one of the relevant printed items to an electronic representation of the relevant printed item. 15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: blocking portions of the relevant printed items that are not authorized for distribution from being presented. 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising: embedding advertisements in said at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items. 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrated ranked listing includes hyperlinks to respective electronic images of the relevant printed items and relevant web documents. 18. A system including a searchable database and a computer, the system comprising: means for storing, in the searchable database, content data sets representing printed items from publications respectively printed by a plurality of respective publishers, each content data set including text from at least one of the printed items; means for storing advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the printed items; means for receiving a search query; means for identifying one or more relevant web pages and one or more content data sets corresponding to one or more relevant printed items based on the search query; means for identifying one or more advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the printed items represented by the one or more identified content data sets; means for returning at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant web pages and at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items and, for said at least one of the relevant printed items, providing an electronic path for accessing further information; where the at least one characterization of said at least one of the relevant printed items further comprises data directing a search engine to update advertisement information associated with the at least one of the relevant printed items; and means for ranking the returned at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant web pages and the at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items to generate an integrated ranked listing of relevant characterizations. 19. A system, comprising: a first programmable computer node to: store content data sets in a searchable database, the content data sets representing printed items from publications respectively printed by a plurality of respective publishers, and advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the printed items, where the advertisement data sets are different from the content data sets, where the advertisement data sets include data for linking to information about a product corresponding to the advertisements, and where each content data set includes text from at least one of the printed items; and a second programmable computer node to: identify relevant web pages and content data sets corresponding to one or more relevant printed items based on a received search query, identify one or more advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the one or more relevant printed items, generating an integrated ranked listing comprising at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant web pages and at least one characterization of at least of the relevant printed items, where the at least one characterization of the at least one of the relevant printed items includes data directing a search engine to update advertisement information associated with the at least one of the relevant printed items, and for said at least one of the relevant printed items, provide data corresponding to the identified one or more advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with said at least one of the relevant printed items. 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the printed items, that are represented by stored content data sets, comprise copyrighted printed items. 21. The system of claim 20, further comprising: a third programmable computer node to execute a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization to provide additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items. 22. The system of claim 19, wherein the stored advertisement data sets include data related to presenting information about a product represented in one of the advertisements. 23. The system of claim 19, wherein the stored advertisement data sets include data for directing the second programmable computer node to obtain new advertisement information for one of the relevant printed items. 24. The system of claim 19, wherein the stored advertisement data sets include information representing data related to presenting information about a product represented in one of the advertisements. 25. The system of claim 19, further including means for scanning the printed items and generating scanned printed items, and wherein the content data sets represent the scanned printed items. 26. The system of claim 25, wherein the scanned printed items comprise copyrighted printed items, and further comprising: means for executing a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization over the Internet that permits the second programmable computer node to present additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items, the authorization being in response to the second programmable computer node providing an electronic path for accessing further information for said at least one of the relevant printed items. 27. The system of claim 25, wherein the scanned printed items comprise copyrighted printed items, and further comprising: means for executing a permission protocol in which a publisher provides authorization over the Internet that permits the second programmable computer node to present additional text from said at least one of the relevant printed items, the authorization being in response to a representative of the publisher submitting the search query and, in response the second programmable computer node providing the electronic path for accessing further information for said at least one of the relevant printed items. 28. The system of claim 19, further comprising: means for storing an index of the content data sets and the advertisement data sets in a searchable database. 29. The system of claim 19, further comprising: means for configuring each content data set to be displayed as a replica of the corresponding printed item. 30. The system of claim 19, further comprising: means for storing an index of the content data sets in a searchable database and wherein the at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items includes a hyperlink associated with an entry in the index corresponding to a different representation of one of the printed items. 31. The system of claim 19, wherein the second programmable computer node is configured to provide an electronic path for accessing further information relating to the at least one relevant printed item, and where the electronic path for accessing further information includes at least one hyperlink that, when acted upon, links said at least one of the relevant printed items to a complete electronic representation of the relevant printed items. 32. The system of claim 19, further including means for blocking presentation of portions of the at least one of the relevant printed items that are not authorized for distribution. 33. The system of claim 19, wherein the second programmable computer node is further configured to include embedded advertisements in said at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items. 34. A computer device, including a searchable database, comprising: means for storing in the searchable database content data sets representing printed items from publications respectively printed by a plurality of respective publishers, each content data set including text from at least one of the printed items; means for storing advertisement data sets representing advertisements related to the printed items, the advertisement data sets including data for linking to information about products corresponding to the advertisements; means, responsive to a search query, for identifying one or more relevant web documents and one or more content data sets corresponding to one or more relevant printed items based on the search query; means for generating an integrated ranked listing comprising at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant web documents and at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant printed items and, providing an electronic path for accessing a copyrighted version of the printed item, where the at least one characterization of the at least one of the relevant printed items includes data directing a search engine to update advertisement information associated with the at least one of the relevant printed items, and where the means for returning at least one characterization of the relevant printed items includes means for returning information from an advertisement for said at least one of the relevant printed items from the advertisement data sets corresponding to the relevant printed items. 35. A computer-implemented method, comprising: storing, in a searchable database, content data representing publication items produced by a plurality of publishers, storing advertisement data representing advertisements printed with the publication items, where the advertisement data is linked to the content data, the advertisement data includes data for linking to information about a product corresponding to the advertisements; responsive to a search query, identifying one or more relevant web-accessible documents and one or more content data sets corresponding to the one or more relevant publication items based on the search query; identifying one or more advertisement data sets representing advertisements printed with the relevant publication items; ranking the identified web-accessible documents and the relevant publication items; and returning an integrated ranked search results listing based on the ranking, where the listing includes at least one characterization of the relevant web-accessible documents and at least one characterization of at least one of the relevant publication items for said at least one of the relevant publication items, an electronic path for accessing further information, and information from the advertisements for said at least one of the relevant publication items from the one or more advertisements data sets corresponding to the relevant publication items, where the at least one characterization of the at least one of the relevant publication items includes data directing a search engine to update advertisement information associated with the at least one of the relevant publication items. 36. The computing device-implemented method of claim 35, wherein the electronic path includes a path for accessing data made available according to a permission protocol. 37. The computing device-implemented method of claim 35, wherein the electronic path provides access to further information made available by a publisher of the further information.