Claims
- 1. A method of searching data on a network, the method comprising:indexing a subset of the data stored on a local computer; receiving at the local computer a search query from a user of the local computer; searching the indexed data based on the search query; sending the search query to other local computers on the network; receiving at the central computer results of the search query from the local computer; receiving at the central computer results of the search query from other local computers; and merging the search results received from the local computer and other local computers.
- 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the subset of data stored on the local computer is less than four gigabytes in size.
- 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:inverting the indexed data.
- 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the inversion of the indexed entered data assigns a weight to a document based on a frequency of a word found in the document.
- 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:indexing the search query.
- 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of indexing the search query yields a weighted vector.
- 7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of:utilizing the weighted vector to derive a document score.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is a continuation of U.S. Patent application No. 09/678,371 filed Oct. 2, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,317, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application No. 09/079,073, filed May 14, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,163,782, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/066,111, filed Nov. 19, 1997, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
US Referenced Citations (16)
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60/066111 |
Nov 1997 |
US |
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
09/678371 |
Oct 2000 |
US |
Child |
10/023833 |
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US |
Parent |
09/079073 |
May 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/678371 |
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US |