Abstract: Documents containing information about product offerings in various natural languages are passed through transitional translation layers which convert the data to a single computer language using a universal character set encompassing the character sets used in all supported natural languages. The documents are stored in their original natural languages and in English with documents segmented into components which components are identified by search terms arranged in a taxonomy tree based on product types. The names of the products in the national languages are added to the English language documents enabling quick keyword searches when the product name or number is known. A bi-directional inverted index is provided for access by the keyword search terms so that keywords with the same meaning in different languages are accessible together when the keyword in one of the languages is queried.

Abstract: Inputted data in various natural languages are passed through transitional translation layers which convert the data to a single computer language using a universal character set encompassing the character sets used in all supported natural languages. The data are stored in their original natural languages with documents segmented into components identified by search terms which components are arranged in a taxonomy tree based on types. In the case of a product database, these types could be various product types enabling quick keyword searches when the product name or number is known. A bi-directional inverted index is provided for access by the keyword search terms in which the keywords in all supported languages are stored and cross-referenced to documents in each of the natural languages. Keywords with the same meaning in different languages are accessible together when the keyword in one of the languages is queried.