Granted Patent B2

US 8,583,592 · App. 11/731,376 · Granted Nov 12, 2013

Abstract

Claims (63)

1. A method comprising:

receiving search results from one or more data sources that satisfy a user query at a search tier of a data processing system;

extracting and loading data from each of the search results into a temporary table mapped to an internal format corresponding to pre-processed data of the data processing system using an extract-transform-load module;

extracting and loading statistics and other metadata related to the search results into the temporary table using a metadata navigation module of the search tier;

processing the data extracted from each of the search results to identify related dimensions to determine a plurality of relationships between the search results in response to receiving the search results using a classifier module and to update the temporary table with the plurality of relationships;

retrieving automatically second data from a data warehouse in response to determining the plurality of relationships;

updating the temporary table with the second data retrieved from the data warehouse using the extract-transform-load module;

determining a second plurality of relationships between the search results and the second data using the classifier module and updating the temporary table with the second plurality of relationships to produce output search results; and

providing the output search results to a user device through a network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the data from the data warehouse comprises accessing pre-processed data associated with an enterprise using the plurality of relationships.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the data from the data warehouse comprises retrieving structured data from a publicly available data source.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the data from the data warehouse comprises accessing subject matter specific data based on the plurality of relationships.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the output search results comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including at least a portion of the output search results and including a plurality of user selectable elements accessible by a user to alter a visualization of the output search results; and

sending the graphical user interface to the user device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of relationships comprises:

correlating the search results based on one or more data dimensions to define the plurality of relationships using the classifier module;

wherein the one or more data dimensions include at least one of an author attribute and an owner attribute.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of relationships between the search results and updating the data retrieved from the data warehouse with the search results to produce output search results comprises on-line analytical processing.

8. A search system comprising:

a network interface configured to couple to a network;

a processor coupled to the interface; and

a memory accessible to the processor and configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive search results from one or more data sources that satisfy a user query;

extract and load data from each of the search results into a temporary table mapped to an internal format corresponding to pre-processed data within a data store;

extract and load statistics and other metadata related to the search results into the temporary table;

process the data and metadata in the temporary table to determine relationships between the search results based on the data extracted from the search results and based on the data and metadata in the temporary table;

automatically retrieve ancillary data from a data warehouse based on at least one of determining the relationships and loading the data extracted from the search results;

update the temporary table with the ancillary data;

determine second relationships between the search results and the ancillary data and update the temporary table with the second relationships to produce output search results; and

send the output search results to a user device through the network.

9. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the data warehouse comprises private enterprise data.

10. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the data warehouse comprises enterprise resource planning (ERP) data.

11. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to classify each search result according to a normalized classification of a set of classifications;

wherein the relationships are determined, in part, based on commonality between search results according to the normalized classification.

12. The search system of claim 11 , wherein the set of classifications comprise classifications translated from at least one of North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classifications, Standard Industry Classification (SIC) categories, United States Patent and Trademark Office classifications, international classifications, legal classifications, news service classifications, and proprietary classifications.

13. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the data warehouse comprises at least one of litigation information and financial information.

14. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the data warehouse is accessible via the network.

15. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the data warehouse is associated with the memory.

16. The search system of claim 8 , wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

generate a graphical user interface including the output search results and including a plurality of user-selectable options accessible by a user to view the output search results in different ways.

17. A method comprising:

searching multiple data sources based on a user query to retrieve search results that satisfy the user query using a search tier of a computing system;

extracting data from the search results to populate one or more tables using an extract-transform-load modulate of the search tier;

extracting metadata from the search results to populate the one or more tables using a metadata navigation module;

processing the data extracted from the search results to determine correlations between the search results using a classifier module;

in response to processing the data, automatically retrieving associative data from a data warehouse based on the data extracted from the search results and the correlations and metadata of the one or more tables using the search tier;

updating the data in the one or more tables with the associative data;

processing the associative data to determine correlations between the search results and the associative data;

updating the one or more tables to produce output search results; and

providing the output search results to a user device through a network.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein providing the output search results to the user device comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including a visualization associated with at least a portion of the output search results, the graphical user interface further including at least one user-selectable element accessible by a user to refine the output search results and including at least one other user-selectable element accessible by a user to change between visualizations of the output search results; and

sending the graphical user interface to the user device.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the data warehouse comprises a database including pre-processed data.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the multiple data sources include a plurality of unrelated data sources.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein searching the multiple data sources comprises:

generating queries based on the user query and formatted for different search engines to search the multiple data sources;

receiving results related to the user query from the multiple data sources; and

merging the results to produce the search results.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the associative data comprises business intelligence data.

23. The method of claim 17 , wherein the associative data comprises data that is not contained within the search results from the multiple data sources.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the associative data comprises proprietary data.

Assignments (13)