Abstract: An apparatus and method implementable with a software application for checking or assessing exceedances process variables beyond safe operating limits is disclosed. The process has instruments, a process history database, and one or more external databases. The instruments measure process variables and can be associated with the equipment. The process history database stores a plurality of values of the process variables measured by the instruments. Data of the equipment, the associated instrument, and the safe operating limit for the equipment is defined in a limit sequence of the software application. Preferably, the data of the equipment, the instrument, and the safe operating limit is imported from the one or more external databases. The process history database is searched for one or more exceedance values that are measured by the defined instrument and that exceed the defined safe operating limit.

Abstract: Systems, computer software and methods for searching plural domain names based on domain name system queries are described. The method includes receiving as input a domain name, searching a database for identifying scores measuring relatedness of the input domain name and other domain names of the plural domain names, retrieving related domain names with the highest relatedness scores, and associating the input domain name and the related domain names. The relatedness scores are calculated based on the domain name system queries of users.

Abstract: A method and system for generating a search result for a query of hierarchically organized documents based on retrieval of subtrees that are key resources for topic distillation is provided. The retrieval system may identify documents relevant to a query using conventional searching techniques. The retrieval system then calculates a subtree feature for subtrees that have an identified document as their root. After the retrieval system calculates the subtree feature for the subtrees, the retrieval system may generate a subtree relevance score for each subtree based on its subtree feature. The retrieval system may then order the identified documents based on their corresponding subtree relevances.

Abstract: A keyword management system for managing keywords used when a user terminal connected to a network accesses contents, includes a Burst value calculating unit that calculates a Burst value indicating an increase per unit time of a keyword, an overall Burst value calculating unit that calculates an overall Burst value by correcting the Burst value based on characteristics in the contents of the keyword corresponding to the Burst value, and an output controlling unit that extracts from the contents, a relevant keyword related to the keyword corresponding to the overall Burst value based on time series changes of the overall Burst value, and outputs the keyword and the relevant keyword associated with each other to the user terminal.

Abstract: A method and system for displaying advertisement listings in a sponsored search environment is provided. The method and system may include receiving at a server located within a network location a search term corresponding to a search request by a searcher via a user terminal; selecting at least one interactive advertisement associated with the search term, where the advertisement may include fields that enable specifying data; generating a search result web page with links to websites associated with the search term as well as the interactive advertisement; and communicating the data specified by the searcher to a processing server. The method may also include selecting interactive advertisements based on the geographic location of the searcher. The processing server may be located at the first or second network location and the interactive advertisements may be stored at the first or second network location.

Abstract: A system of analyzing a large document-based propensity over a query language is disclosed. In the system of analyzing the large document-based propensity over the query language, the correlated words and sentences on the query language inputted by the user are searched on the basis of large on-line or off line documents and the general report of analyzing the relationship among the words of the corresponding documents, the propensity of the words and the sentences, the appearance frequency of the recent words and sentences and so on is provided to the user, whereby it can previously predict the propensity (the positive image, the negative image or Non-Applicable), the related word based on the importance and the tendency change through the result of the large document analysis generating for a recent predetermined period according to the query language of the user.

Abstract: Situational location dependent information is transmitted from a server data processing system to a receiving data processing system. The server data processing system communicates with the receiving data processing system in a manner by pushing content when appropriate. A candidate delivery event associated with a current positional attribute of the receiving data processing system is recognized and a situational location of the remote data processing system is determined. The candidate delivery event may be a location and/or direction change, device state change, or movement exceeding a movement tolerance. The situational location of the remote data processing system may be its location, direction, location and direction, proximity to a location, state change, or location and/or direction relative to a previous location and/or direction, or combinations thereof.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of providing relevant media content to a user, comprising: storing static data relating to the user's personal profile; providing a choice of media items to the user and allowing the user to select at least one media item from the choice for inclusion in a single media entity to be provided to a media device of the user; selecting at least one relevant media item from a set of additional media items in dependence upon at least some of the static data and at least some of any metadata associated with the or each media item selected by the user; concatenating the at least one user-selected media item and the at least one selected relevant media item to form the single media entity; and sending the single media entity to the user's media device.

Abstract: A point-of-interest mapping search system that combines inexact string searches with a proximity search to provide an extremely high probability of return of a set of search results in an initial search response that are useful to the user. Relevance of any particular point-of-interest item in a combined inexact string/proximity is dependent on both (1) a quality of the name match; and (2) a proximity to the starting location (or other relevant search center point) of the POI search. The inexact string name/proximity search is performed efficiently by iteratively expanding a search radius around a given location, searching concentric circles of proximity until a specified target number of relevant results have been found. It is the combination of the use of a combined inexact string match together with a proximity search performed against a database of geo-referenced business names that provides advantageous results.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for searching a defined area. In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method comprising receiving a plurality of product data, wherein the product data describes a plurality of products offered for sale by a plurality of businesses. Product data may be associated with a defined area, where the businesses each have a point-of-sale store located in the defined area. A user may enter a search request, and the system searches product data for a plurality of products in a plurality of point-of-sale stores in the defined area. The system outputs product data for point-of-sale stores located in said defined area matching said search request.

Abstract: The invention concerns a method for assisting user searches in a support system and a system for performing the method which comprises the steps of providing a support data structure with nodes comprising support information of a support database, and providing at least one behavioral data structure comprising information about the time the user(s) spend at said nodes, and information about the transition probabilities between each upper node and its lower nodes, and calculating for each lower node that is located below a current node, navigated to by a user of the support data structure, the expectation value of the time gained by navigating directly to that lower node, and selecting at least one of the lower nodes based on said expectation value.

Abstract: Multiple non-host client sites provide cached user copies of web pages and/or web content, or summaries thereof, to a server. Obtaining data from non-host sources for indexing purposes avoids masked web page content indexing errors for search engines. The server aggregates, summarizes and indexes the web pages and/or web content in an index of cached content, in conjunction with updating, generating and storing a search index using an indexing agent such as a web crawler or spider. In response to receiving search requests from end users, the search engine uses comparisons between the index of cached content and the index of crawled content to identify potential page masking errors for specific search results and appropriately rank or omit results with a high risk of masking errors in a search result list.

Abstract: An embodiment relates generally to a method of generating user-specified information. The method includes receiving a plurality of points selected on a map to form a first continuous line having one or more vertices. The method also includes generating a closed polygon having a plurality of edges, where at least one edge forms a second continuous line substantially parallel to and spaced apart at a distance from the first continuous line. The method also includes determining a plurality of coordinate pairs each associated with a point on the plurality of edges of the closed polygon and retrieving user specified information for an area enclosed by the plurality of coordinate pairs.

Abstract: The invention relates to an automated risk monitoring method and a corresponding risk monitoring system for automated risk monitoring, in the case of which control data for different companies are transferred to a monitoring unit and evaluated, a company specific asset distribution and a corresponding threshold value being determined, said threshold value corresponding to the expected value of the asset parameter for the occurrence of the insolvency of a company, recovery rate factors being determined by means of a standardization module of the monitoring unit, and wherein, using a MonteCarlo module of the monitoring unit (20), MonteCarlo asset parameters are generated for each company by means of which the companies with the lowest expected recovery rate factors are determined and dynamic adjustment of the portfolio accordingly made by means of the monitoring unit.

Abstract: A method of providing a search result and a system for executing the method are provided. A method of providing a search result includes: setting a grade of a category associated with a keyword based on click information; creating a category list to maintain the category list in association with the keyword, wherein the category list includes the category that is arranged according to the grade; and providing a search result for the keyword in an order of the category in the category list, wherein the click information includes information regarding whether the category is clicked on and a clicked order.

Abstract: A computer system representing user preferences in an N-dimensional preference topography and making recommendations based on such topography. The preference topography depicts user ratings of products in a recommendation database. Each product is represented by a product vector associated with N objectively measurable characteristics. The user rating of a product, therefore, represents the user's preference for the particular combination of the N objectively measurable characteristics making up the product. In making a recommendation of products to the user, the system assigns a rating to each product in the recommendation database based on the preference topography. The system then selects a plurality of maximally unique choices from the rated products for recommendation to the user. These maximally unique choices are calculated to be as diverse from one another as possible but still to the user's liking.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically generating tags for digital content are provided. The method is adapted to be run on a computer, which is an example of the type of apparatus which may generate the tags. The generated tags describe the digital content, and may be used as topics for the content to organize, retrieve, and process the content. The tag generation begins by accessing content from a content collection unit and a tags candidate tag database unit, which are then processed using techniques from computational linguistics in a multi-pass process that generates sets of tags, then refines and normalizes them. Finally, scores are generated and stored along with the tags.

Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search are described herein. Embodiments of the present invention use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to capture within search results relevant content that would otherwise be missed, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments of the present invention further use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to extend search results to include sub-document constituents. Embodiments of the present invention also support the use of distribution properties as criteria for ranking search results.

Abstract: A method of sorting web pages includes the steps of acquiring a plurality of forbidden keywords, receiving information of a list of web pages provided by a search engine, separating the web pages into valid web pages and invalid web pages according to forbidden keywords, rearranging the information of the valid web pages and the invalid web pages, and outputting the rearranged information of the valid web pages and the invalid web pages. A related search terminal and a client terminal are also provided.

Abstract: A method for providing value added services to a user terminal by an access point in a wireless network is provided. The method comprises intercepting a request initiated by a user terminal for accessing information. The method further comprises determining if the request is a local search request. If the request is a local search request, then location information is appended to the request. Location specific search results are rendered on the user terminal.

Abstract: A method and device index resource content in a computer network. The computer network includes at least a first computer as a search engine and at least a second computer as a resource content site where a resource content of a user is stored. A determination is made as to whether the resource content is linked to a user-defined indexing code. The user-defined indexing code is used to process the resource content to obtain a set of information describing the resource content. The user-defined indexing code is executed in response to determining that the resource content is linked to the user-defined indexing code. The set of information describing the resource content is obtained as an indexing result in response to the executing.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are databases that contain image context categorizations, those categorizations identifying the context of an image based on a computed fingerprint. Also disclosed herein are applications of such a database, including a viewing application that blocks the rendering of images with undesirable content noted by a content categorization, and a scanning application that locates images in a corpus or repository of images having certain content noted by content categorization, such as unlawful images. Such blocking may be through an obfuscation technique, such as blurring, distorting an image, or may be through a replacement of image material. A categorization tool may include obfuscation with an aperture tool for clarifying portions of blocked images. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.

Abstract: A method for generating and maintaining hierarchical tags with community-based ratings is provided. Tags for media streams are organized into a hierarchical format. Users may select tags from the hierarchical tag database that describes a particular multimedia content. If the user is unable to locate a desired tag, the user may submit a new tag. Upon submission of the new tag, a librarian approves the tag before storing and placing the tag in the hierarchical tag database. Users are also able to rate the quality of the association between the tag and the multimedia content. If a tag is rated low, the tag may be removed from the hierarchical tag database. If the tag is rated highly, display of the tag in a list of tags becomes more prominent.

Abstract: The search method comprises a first step of receiving a service inquiry request; a second step of making an inquiry about policy information of a client 100 who requested service and obtaining the policy information of the client 100 from a policy database 103; a third step of sending a request to search for a server matching the service sought after by the request and obtaining information showing the server matching the service from a registry 109; a fourth step of extracting a server meeting the policy information of the client obtained in the second step out of servers related to the information obtained in the third step; and a fifth step of transmitting information showing the server extracted in the fourth step to the source of the request to search for service.

Abstract: Performing location-aware search involves intercepting a network request targeted for an Internet-based search engine. The network request includes a location-dependent query containing a location term, and the location term cannot be used by the search engine to positively determine a target location. A location descriptor that can be used by the search engine to positively determine a target location is determined via a location database. The location database may include a location sensor such as GPS. The network request is modified to replace the location term with the location descriptor, and the modified network request is sent to the search engine.

Abstract: A search operation can provide geographically restricted and verified information to a user. A two-step approach is used to perform these searches. The first step is to obtain high relevance search results by searching only in a specific region defined for a search operation. The second step further improves the quality of the search results by performing contact address correlation. If the search server finds a reliable reference address in the search results, then these search results can be presented to the user, whereby search results that are not correlating well with legitimate and registered addresses for the site are removed from the search result lists. Therefore, the region-restricted search does searching in a selected geographical region and only presents legitimate web pages or search results to a user.

Abstract: A system and method which provides a structured search that can be optimized according to one or more parameters of the user. The one or more parameters may optionally be set before the search or during the search, for example to refine the results, or a combination thereof. According to some embodiments, the method preferably includes a structured search of non-traditional web page documents, including but not limited to repositories of documents, such as those in traditional word processing formats, which are preferably in a repository that is not directly accessed through an HTTP server. According to other embodiments, the method preferably includes searching in a plurality of locations, optionally and preferably using a plurality of different search engines. More preferably the plurality of locations includes but is not limited to locations that are local to the user, locations available through a computer network such as the Internet and/or an intranet for example, and/or document repositories.

Abstract: Systems, computer implemented methods and computer program products are provided for selectively capturing and/or evaluating information including content and metadata from across a network such as the “wide world web” (WWW), or more generally, the Internet. A deep web mining tool may be utilized to exploit the deep web by understanding forms, search engines and results pages. Moreover, deep web mining tool may be utilized to extract and exploit structured and unstructured content and metadata from web sites and documents, generate queries, capture and re-link web sites, crawl through web sites and non-HTML files and perform other aspects of obtaining and/or evaluating information.

Abstract: Internet filtering system to produce only desirable internet search returns and to block undesirable web sites by computer administrators (herein called governors) wishing to limit the access of internet content for themselves, their children, their employees or clients, using a consumer-governed internet web site rating system that is verified with a governor voting system and vote validation process.

Abstract: A method and system for serving electronic content for placement in a user interface provided by an online service provider system is described. The system stores user data in a user database based on user interaction with the user interface and stores filters associated with the electronic content. The user data is compared to the filters associated with the electronic content and it is determined if the user data matches conditions of the filters. If a match is determined the electronic content is provided for presentation by the user interface.

Abstract: A method of searching video content includes searching the video content according to criteria defined by a user, and sending a notice to an electronic calendar with at least one entry that meets the criteria. A graphical user interface performing the method is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for ranking results from a search engine query is described. In one embodiment, the search engine provides results from a search query. The results contain a list of web pages where each web page has one or more inbound links. The search engine computes the growth of the number of inbound links of each web page over a predefined period of time. The search engine ranks each web page based on a function of its respective computed growth of the number of inbound links.

Abstract: System, method and computer program for initiating a search at a server computer. A data base including a URL of the server computer is stored at a client computer. Information entered by a user into the client computer is received. From the information, a search term and the URL of the server computer are identified. Then, an HTTP search request which includes the URL of the server computer and the search term is generated. Then, the HTTP search request is sent to the server computer. The identifying of the URL of the server computer comprises searching the data base for a character string contained in the information that matches the URL of the server computer. The identifying of the search term comprises identifying a portion of the information appended to the URL of the server. The identifying of the search term also comprises omitting from the portion one or more symbols adjacent to the search term which are inconsistent with a search request using HTTP.

Abstract: A method and system for crawling multiple websites containing one or more web pages having information relevant to a particular domain of interest, such as details about local restaurants, extracting content from such websites, such as hours, location and phone number as well as reviews, review dates and other business specific information, and associating the extracted content with a specific business entity.

Abstract: A method to provide additional media objects for data objects containing one or more existing media objects is described. The existing media object is analyzed to determine additional related media available on the network, and the data object description is augmented with metadata to identify the additional media in an enhanced data object description. When the enhanced data object is rendered, the metadata facilitates incorporation of additional media objects in the displayed page.

Abstract: System, method and computer program for targeting advertising in which advertiser can access a search engine and input search parameters to cause the search engine to search one or more databases based on the input search parameters and identify individuals meeting the search parameters. Each database may contain data about individuals to which advertisements can be directed and is generated based, in part, on known information or the individuals as well as on events performed by each individual when using their terminal, e.g., when talking, messaging, browsing, blogging and responding to displayed advertisements.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for providing a domain-aware snippet for a search result. With such techniques, a domain classification component is provided for identifying a template used to generate a plurality of web pages of a domain, associating the template and content of the web pages related to the template with a Uniform Resource Locator pattern of the plurality of web pages, and storing the associated template, the related content, and the Uniform Resource Locator pattern in a database. A snippet extraction component is also provided for extracting text from a section of a web page of the plurality of web pages for a snippet of a search result corresponding to a search query, wherein the extracted text is based on a ranking value of the section and the relevance of the extracted text to the search query.

Abstract: A system and method of filtering search results is provided. Certain embodiments provide an improved user experience in filtering large sets of data in a computer system through the use of multidimensional associative arrays which allow results to be filtered within a web interface without needing additional calls to web server or online database.

Abstract: This invention provides a computer system architecture and method for providing the same which can include a web page search node including a web page collection. The system and method can also include a web server configured to receive, from a given user via a web browser, a search query including keywords. The node is caused to search pages in its own collection that best match the search query. A search page returner may be provided which is configured to return, to the user, high ranked pages. The node may include a power-efficiency-enhanced processing subsystem, which includes M processors. The M processors are configured to emulate N virtual processors, and they are configured to limit a virtual processor memory access rate at which each of the N virtual processors accesses memory. The memory accessed by each of the N virtual processors may be RAM. In select embodiments, the memory accessed by each of the N virtual processors includes DRAM having a high capacity yet lower power consumption then SRAM.

Abstract: A system and method for providing media recommendations, such as music recommendations, based on information identifying media recently played by a select group of heavy influencers for a subscription fee are provided. The group of heavy influencers may be a group of one or more celebrities or other persons whose media selections may heavily influence media selections of the users of the system.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for matching participants in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) recommendation network that is loosely coupled to a subscription music service. In general, the system includes a central server and a number of peer devices. For each of the peer devices, an associated user is either a subscriber to the subscription music service or a non-subscriber. When a user of a peer device desires to identify new friends with which to exchange recommendations in the P2P recommendation network, a friend recommendation function of the central server identifies new friends for the user of the peer device based on the user's status as either a subscriber or a non-subscriber to the subscription music service.

Abstract: A method and system for selecting personalized search engines for accessing information is provided. Each personalized search engine represents one or more base search engines. Characteristic information, representing searching capabilities of each of the multiple personalized search engines is obtained. A personalized search engine is selected among the multiple personalized search engines for executing a query based on said characteristic information and the query.

Abstract: A method of performing a search of an online directory, comprising receiving an identifier entered as part of website address; extracting the identifier entered as part of the website address; searching one or more databases associated with the online directory for instances of the identifier; and displaying information extracted from the one or more databases if a match was found for the identifier.

Abstract: Apparatus, systems and methods for search filtering are disclosed. A search instance associated with a user device is identified, and a determination is made as to whether the search instance includes a filtering term. If the search instance is determined to include a filtering term, then filtered content items in the search instance are identified, and the filtered content items and access to a verification service that provides access approval or access denial for unfiltered content items in the search instance are provided to the user device. Conversely, if the search instance is determine not to include a filtering term, then the unfiltered content items are provided to the user device.

Abstract: A search engine and/or news aggregator considers temporal qualities of electronic documents, a location of a searcher/reviewer, and a situs associated with content of the document to determine how/if they should be presented to users.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for managing comment data generated when interacting with a page module is disclosed. At least one comment data being expressed by a user when interacting with the page module is detected and analyzed identify a context for the comment data. If the comment data is identified to be associate with a context, tagging the comment data with a context association, and if the comment data is not associated with a context then maintaining the comment data associated only with the page module. The comment data is then populated in the other page modules that were identified to have a context association with the comment data. The populating enables display presentation of the comment data made at the page module at the one or more page modules having the context association.

Abstract: According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a query generation system generally includes an element rank and inference engine in communication with a computing system and a user interface. The element rank and inference engine is operable to receive a user supplied element from the user interface, the user supplied element being associated with a first filter criterion. The element rank and inference engine is also operable to create, using the first filter criterion, at least one second element and rank according to their relative importance, the at least one first element and the at least one second element according to their associated first filter criterion and second filter criterion. Next, the element rank and inference engine may output the at least one first filter element and the second filter element to the computing system.

Abstract: In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for delivering targeted advertising to users. A digital ad targeting system is adapted to operate with respect to expressly provided profiles of and relating to consumers. The expressly provided profiles may include psychographic information of and relating to consumers. The system may include an application, a database, and/or an interface. Related methods are disclosed.

Abstract: Blogs (and other information sources) are recommended to a user based history of user's online activities. The system: (1) processes the user's web history, (2) identifies blog posts (and web pages) that link to pages read by the user, (3) generates multiple relevance scores for each identified post/page, and (4) produces multiple rankings of the corresponding source blogs (and web sites) by aggregating individual relevance scores (or combinations of relevance scores), according to users' preferences. The system allows the discovery of information sources that are likely to be interesting to the user and allows sources lost in the “long tail” to be seamlessly discovered.

Abstract: A search expertise level system and method for determining a search expertise level of a search engine user and then using that information to improve the searcher's experience. The search expertise level system and method identifies the search expertise level of the searcher based on query behavior, post-query browsing behavior, and other behaviors of the searcher. One simple and important behavior that indicates a skilled searcher is the use of advanced query syntax and operators in the query. Once the search expertise level of a searcher is known, the search engine user interface can be modified and tailored to the needs of both skilled and novice searchers. The search expertise level also can be used to rank search results, such that search results for a novice searcher are ranked differently than those for a skilled searcher. The search expertise level also can be used in advertising and marketing.