Abstract: An method for searching a database and sorting the results of a search to identify important, authoritative, and seminal records and to bring them to the front of the search result. The method comprises a means of rapidly identifying references to other records within each record and an algorithm that uses those references to identify the seminal, authoritative, and important cases. The invention may be used in legal research, permitting researches to find additional seminal documents that are missed by a standard Boolean search and to sort search results by seminality so that they can rapidly find the seminal case in an area of law.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for simultaneously displaying both record names and the associated files responsive to a user's search over a database. A user conducts a routine search query over a database or group of databases of records containing, for example, text documents, or alphabetical concordances thereof. The search engine returns a list of records responsive to the user's query. In contrast to the standard list of record identifiers, the apparatus displays both the identifiers and selected portions of those records or other useful information, as defined by the user, facilitating quick review. The user is able to sort the list of these responsive records in a variety of ways, either before the search, or within the list of results, to expedite review. The apparatus identifies records that have been reviewed previously by marking them as “viewed” links.