Searching large collections of text using multiple search engines concurrently
US5987446A · kind A · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 12, 1996 |
| Grant date | Nov 16, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 12, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99935
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An information retrieval system is disclosed, wherein the system includes a plurality of text search engines based on substantially different computational searching techniques. By activating each search engine with input from a user information request, the output from each of the search engines is combined into a single list of information items. A ranking process ranks the information items in the combined list by utilizing information item ordering data also received from each of the search engines as to the relevance of the information items output by the search engine to the user's request. Thus, by providing higher rankings to those information items determined to be most relevant to the user's request by each of (or a majority of) the search engines, these information items have been found to be highly consistent in satisfying the user's request for information.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.