Patent · US Expired

Method, system, and computer program product for interfacing with information sources

US7668740B1 · kind B1 · utility

38Cited by
54References
42Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 22, 2000
Grant dateFeb 23, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 7, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F16/24552
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for interfacing between information requesters and information sources. In an embodiment, information is obtained from one or more information sources in response to client requests. In an embodiment, information received from information sources is cached for future use, such as for future client requests. In a caching embodiment, information can also be received by monitoring traffic between an information source and a third party, and/or by proactively querying the information sources. Proactive queries can be generated to populate a cache and/or to update presently cached information. In a caching embodiment, the invention includes methods for determining whether to respond to a request for information out-of-cache and/or with real-time information from an information source. In an embodiment, the invention interfaces with airline availability information sources. The invention also includes, without limitation, methods for interfacing with information sources through proxies, methods for ordering and prioritizing queries, methods for processing queries in a distributed architecture, and time-out features.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.