Obscuring internet searches from external web service providers
US10601784B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 15, 2017 |
| Grant date | Mar 24, 2020 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 10, 2038 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L63/0281
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Approaches presented herein enable obscuring a query from an external web service provider. More specifically, a user-submitted query is split into at least two non-identical, secondary search queries. The non-identical search queries are submitted to an external web services provider separately, at different times spread throughout a search timeframe, from different virtual locations, thereby obscuring the original search query from the external web services provider. An internal system receives and merges the search results of the non-identical secondary queries from the external web services provider. The internal system then performs a second search on the merged results using the original user-submitted search query to find the results within the merged results that are most relevant to the original query. These relevant results are then presented to the user.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.