U.S. patent application number 11/842011 was filed with the patent office on 2008-02-07 for search engine system supporting inclusion of unformatted search string after domain name portion of url.
Invention is credited to Andrew R. Jassy, Jonathan Leblang, Udi Manber.
Application Number | 20080033945 11/842011 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38607133 |
Filed Date | 2008-02-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080033945 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Jassy; Andrew R. ; et
al. |
February 7, 2008 |
SEARCH ENGINE SYSTEM SUPPORTING INCLUSION OF UNFORMATTED SEARCH
STRING AFTER DOMAIN NAME PORTION OF URL
Abstract
A web site system provides functionality for searching a
repository of information, such as the World Wide Web, by including
a search string at the end of a URL without any special formatting.
In one embodiment, when the system receives a request for a URL of
the form www.domain_name/char_string, where char_string is a
character string that may include spaces and non-alphabetic
characters, the system initially determines whether the character
string includes a prefix that identifies the URL as a
non-search-request URL. If no such prefix is present, the character
string is used in its entirely as a search string to execute a
search, and the results of the search are returned to the user.
Inventors: |
Jassy; Andrew R.; (Seattle,
WA) ; Manber; Udi; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Leblang;
Jonathan; (Menlo Park, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
KNOBBE MARTENS OLSON & BEAR LLP
2040 MAIN STREET
FOURTEENTH FLOOR
IRVINE
CA
92614
US
|
Family ID: |
38607133 |
Appl. No.: |
11/842011 |
Filed: |
August 20, 2007 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10924521 |
Aug 23, 2004 |
7287042 |
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11842011 |
Aug 20, 2007 |
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10792405 |
Mar 3, 2004 |
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10924521 |
Aug 23, 2004 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
707/999.006; 707/E17.008; 707/E17.108; 707/E17.115 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/9566 20190101;
G06F 16/951 20190101; Y10S 707/99948 20130101; Y10S 707/99945
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/006 ;
707/E17.008 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Claims
1-22. (canceled)
23. A web site system, comprising: a web server system capable of
receiving and responding to URL requests from user computer
devices; and a query server capable of using search strings
included in said URL requests to execute searches; wherein the web
server system is responsive to a request for a URL that includes a
domain name, followed immediately by a single character, followed
immediately by a search string, by causing the query server to use
the search string to execute a search, and by returning a search
results page with results of said search.
24. The web site system of claim 23, wherein the search string
consists of a keyword or keyword phrase.
25. The web site system of claim 23, wherein the URL contains no
special formatting for identifying the URL as a search request
URL.
26. The web site system of claim 23, wherein the query server is
configured to execute the search by applying the search string to
an index of web pages and/or other content.
27. The web site system of claim 23, wherein the web server system
is responsive to a request for a second URL that includes said
domain name, followed immediately by said single character,
followed immediately by a character string that includes a set of
characters that identifies the second URL as a non-search-request
URL, by returning a web page without invoking said query
server.
28. The web site system of claim 27, wherein the set of characters
consists of non-alphabetic characters.
29. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer
program which embodies a method that comprises the steps of:
receiving a URL request that specifies a URL, said URL including a
domain name followed immediately by a single character followed
immediately by a character string; and responding to the URL
request by causing the character string to be used in its entirety
as a search string for executing a search, and by returning a
search results page with results of said search.
30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the URL does
not contain any special characters or formatting for indicating the
presence of a search string.
31. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the step of
causing the character string to be used in its entirety as a search
string is performed in response to determining that the character
string does not include a predefined character sequence that
identifies the URL as a non-search-request URL.
32. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the method
further comprises: receiving a second URL request that specifies a
second URL, said second URL including said domain name, followed
immediately by said single character, followed immediately by a
second character string that includes a predefined character
sequence, said predefined character sequence identifying the second
URL as a non-search-request URL; and responding to the second URL
request by returning non-search-result content referenced by the
second URL.
33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the
predefined character sequence consists of non-alphabetic
characters.
34. A computer-implemented method of conducting a search, the
method comprising the steps of: generating a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) request message that specifies a URL, said URL
including a domain name, followed immediately by a single
character, followed immediately by a search string for conducting a
search, said domain name corresponding to a web site system that
implements a search engine; and sending the URL request message on
a computer network to the web site system to cause the web site
system to execute a search using said search string and to return a
search results page with results of the search.
35. The method of claim 34, wherein the single character is a
forward slash.
36. The method of claim 34, wherein the URL does not contain any
special formatting to indicate to the web site system that the URL
contains a search string.
37. The method of claim 34, wherein the search string consists of a
single keyword or a keyword phrase.
38. The method of claim 37, wherein the URL ends with said search
string.
39. The method of claim 34, further comprising: generating a second
URL request message that specifies a second URL, said second URL
including said domain name, and including a character sequence that
identifies the second URL as a non-search-request URL; and sending
the second URL request message on the network to cause the web site
system to return an object referenced by the second URL without
executing a search.
40. The method of claim 39, wherein the character sequence consists
of non-alphabetic characters.
41. The method of claim 39, wherein the second URL includes said
domain name, followed immediately by a forward slash, followed
immediately by said character sequence that identifies the second
URL as a non-search-request URL.
42. The method of claim 39, wherein the second URL specifies a
directory for retrieving the object from a directory structure.
43. A web site system, comprising: a web server system capable of
receiving and responding to URL requests from user computer
devices; and a query server capable of using search strings
included in said URL requests to execute searches; wherein the web
server system is capable of processing a URL request by at least
(1) determining whether the requested URL includes a set of
characters that identifies the requested URL as a
non-search-request URL, (2) when the requested URL is identified as
a non-search-request URL, responding to the URL request without
invoking the query server; and (3) when the requested URL is not
identified as a non-search-request URL, causing the query server to
execute a search using a search string included in the URL, and
returning results of said search.
44. The web site system as in claim 43, wherein the set of
characters consists of non-alphabetic characters.
45. The web site system as in claim 43, wherein the web server
system checks for said set of characters immediately following a
forward slash that immediately follows a domain name portion of the
URL.
46. The web site system as in claim 43, wherein the web server
system checks for said set of characters at the end of the
requested URL.
47. The web site system as in claim 43, wherein the web server
system is capable of responding to a requested URL that includes a
domain name, followed immediately by a single character, followed
immediately by a character string, by causing the query server to
use the character string in its entirety to execute a search.
Description
PRIORITY CLAIM
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. Patent
application Ser. No. 10/924,521, filed Aug. 23, 2004, which is a
continuation of U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 10/792,405, filed
Mar. 3, 2004. The disclosures of the aforesaid applications are
hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Numerous web sites exist that provide search engines for
allowing users to conduct searches of the World Wide Web and other
repositories of content. Typically, a user conducts a search by
retrieving a search page of a web site, entering a search string
into a search box, and then selecting a button for submitting the
search string as a search query or request. The search string may
be a search phrase in which individual terms are separated by
spaces, or may consist of a single search term. The results of the
search query are provided to the user on one or more search results
pages.
[0003] Some search engine sites support the ability for a user to
submit a search query by encoding the search string within a URL
(Uniform Resource Locator). Typically, however, the user must
encode the search string in the URL using special formatting that
is inconvenient or unnatural for users to type. For example, in
some cases, users must add a special string such as "query=" to
indicate that a search is being requested, and/or must add special
characters to the search string itself As one example, the URL
www.google.com/search?q=mars%20rover may be used to the search for
"mars rover."
SUMMARY
[0004] The present invention comprises a web site system that
includes functionality for searching a repository of information,
such as the World Wide Web, by including a search string at the end
of a URL without any special formatting. The search string may
consist of a single search term, or a plurality of search terms
separated by spaces. For example, a user wishing to search for "San
Francisco Hotels" may do by simply accessing the URL
www.domain_name/San Francisco Hotels, where domain name is a
domain_name associated with the web site system. The system may
also support the use of Boolean operators and/or other types of
operators within the search strings.
[0005] In one embodiment, when the system receives a request for a
URL of the form www.domain_name/char_string, where char_string is a
character string that may include spaces and non-alphabetic
characters, the system initially determines whether the character
string includes a prefix that identifies the URL as a
non-search-request URL. If no such prefix is present, the character
string is used in its entirely as a search string to execute a
search, and the results of the search are returned to the user.
Otherwise, the URL request is processed as a non-search-request URL
by, for example, retrieving a static web page or other object from
a subdirectory.
[0006] Neither this summary nor the following detailed description
purports to define the invention. The invention is defined by the
claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] FIG. 1 illustrates a method for processing URL requests in
accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
[0008] FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a set of components that
may be used to implement the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0009] Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described
with reference to the drawings. These embodiments are intended to
illustrate, and not limit, the invention. The scope of the
invention is defined by the claims.
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates a method by which URL request messages
from users are processed in a preferred embodiment of the
invention. As described below, the method depicted in FIG. 1 may be
implemented within software that runs on one or more servers that
process request messages from web clients.
[0011] As depicted by block 10, a URL request message, such as an
HTTP message of the form GET URL, is initially received from
user/web client. The URL included in this request message is of the
form www.domain_name/char_string, where domain_name is a domain
name of a web site system to which the requested is directed (e.g.,
"a9.com"), "/" is a separator character, and char_string is a
character string that may or may not be a search string. The
character string may include spaces, slashes, hyphens, and other
types of non-alphabetic characters. Although a forward slash is
used in this embodiment, a different separator character, such as a
question mark, may alternatively be used.
[0012] As depicted by block 12, the URL is initially processed by
determining whether char_string starts with a predefined prefix,
such as the two-character prefix "-/", that is used to distinguish
search request URLs from non-search-request URLs. The prefix may
have any desired length, such as one, two, three, or four
characters. A prefix that is not likely to appear within search
strings submitted by users is preferably used.
[0013] As depicted by block 14, if char_string does not start with
the predefined prefix, char_string is treated in its entirely as a
search string for performing a search. For example, if the URL is
www.a9.com/San Francisco Hotels, the string "San Francisco Hotels"
would be used as a search string (and more specifically, a keyword
phrase) for performing a search. In a preferred embodiment, the
searches are executed as web searches to locate web pages and other
types of documents on the World Wide Web. In other embodiments, the
searches may additionally or alternatively be directed to another
type of content repository, such as, for example, a database of
published literature, a database or electronic catalog of products,
or a database of online auctions. As depicted by block 16, the
results of the search are incorporated into a search results page,
which is returned to the user/web client that submitted the
request.
[0014] Although not depicted in FIG. 1, a user may also perform a
search by submitting a search string from a conventional search
page, which may be retrieved by requesting a URL of the form
www.domain_name or www.domain_name/.
[0015] If char_string starts with the predefined prefix, the URL is
treated as a non-search-request URL. In this scenario (shown in
block 18), char_string is treated as a further reference to a
directory or object in this scenario, and not as a search string.
For example, if a prefix of "-/" is used, the URL
www.a9.com/-/index.htm would be treated as a request for the web
page at this address, while the URL www.a9.com/index.htm would be
treated as a request to search the World Wide Web for "index.htm."
Although only a single prefix is needed, two or more different
prefixes (e.g., both "-/" and "/-") may be recognized by the system
as signifying the user's intent not to use char string as search
string. The web page or other object referenced by the
non-search-request URL is returned to the user/web client in block
20.
[0016] An important benefit of the method shown in FIG. 1 is that
users can add their search strings to the web site's base URL
without the addition of any special characters to indicate an
intent to conduct a search. For instance, a user wishing to search
the web for "NFL scores" can just request the URL "www.a9.com/NFL
scores". Another benefit is that users can use spaces to separate
search terms, as is currently the convention for entering search
strings on Internet search pages. An additional benefit is that the
search string may appear at the very end of the URL.
[0017] As will be recognized, various modifications can be made to
the method shown in FIG. 1. One such modification is to treat all
URLs of the format www.domain_name/char_string as search request
URLs. If this approach is used, a subdomain (e.g.,
www.pages.a9.com) may be provided for accessing other content of
the web site. Another variation is to treat certain URLs that lack
the full prefix as search requests if such URLs are otherwise
invalid. For example, assuming "-/" is used as the only valid
prefix, a request for www.a9.com//text may be treated as a request
to search for "text" if the URL does not point to a valid
subdirectory or object.
[0018] Another variation is to use a suffix, rather than a prefix,
to identify non-search-request URLs. For instance, a URL of the
format www.domain_name/char_string may be treated as a
non-search-request URL if and only if char_string ends with a
predefined suffix such as "/-" or "/-/".
[0019] FIG. 2 illustrates components of a web site system 30 in
which the invention may be embodied. The system includes a web
server 32 that processes request messages received over the
Internet from user computing devices 34, each of which runs a web
browser or other web client program. The user computing devices 34
may include, for example, personal computers (PCs), personal
digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, and other types of
devices that support web browsing.
[0020] The web server 32 includes, or runs in conjunction with, a
local director component 36 that is responsible for decoding URL
requests as depicted in FIG. 1 to evaluate whether each such
request should be treated as a search request. In one embodiment,
the local director 36 operates by analyzing each URL request
according to a set of rules, and by passing URLs or URL parameters
to specific physical servers or services based on the results of
this analysis.
[0021] When a search request URL is received (e.g., www.a9.com/char
string, where char_string does not start with the predefined
prefix), the web server/local director passes the URL, or the
search string portion of the URL, to a query server 40 for
processing. The query server 40 applies the search string to an
index of web pages and/or other content 42 to execute the search
request. In one embodiment, this task is performed by treating each
term in the search string, except for noise words such as "and,"
"a," and "the," as a keyword. In another embodiment, the search
string may include one or more groups of words (which may be
demarcated using quotations), and may include Boolean operators
(e.g., AND, OR and NOT) and/or other operators (e.g., +, -,
parenthesis, and NEAR); if no quotations or operators are present,
each term, excluding any noise words, may be treated as a keyword.
The results of the search are returned to the web server 32, which
incorporates some or all of the matching items into a search
results page.
[0022] When a non-search-request URL is received, such as the URL
www.a9.com/-/jobs.htm, the web server/local director preferably
uses the URL to access a repository 46 in which content is arranged
within a directory structure. This may involve passing the URL to a
separate server or service responsible for retrieving or generating
the content, depending upon the type of content being requested
(e.g., static versus dynamic web page).
[0023] Although this invention has been described in terms of
certain preferred embodiments and applications, other embodiments
and applications that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in
the art, including embodiments which do not provide all of the
features and advantages set forth herein, are also within the scope
of this invention. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention
is defined only by the appended claims.
* * * * *
References