Granted Patent B2

US 8,171,041 · App. 12/437,600 · Granted May 1, 2012

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. A search engine server that supports delivery of search results using an international search string, the search engine server comprising:

processing circuitry, memory coupled to the processing circuitry, and network circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry that interoperate to provide a search string interpretation module that is capable of interpreting the international search string in a target language;

a conjugate terms database resident within the memory and comprising a plurality of international strings and their corresponding conjugate target language terms;

wherein the search string interpretation module interprets the international search string by:

determining the language of the international search string via correlation with the conjugate terms database, and

retrieving a conjugate target language term from the conjugate terms database;

wherein, in response to determining that international terms support is enabled, the search engine server facilitates searching of websites having international language support using the conjugate target language term and by employing the search string interpretation module and conjugate terms database;

wherein, in response to determining that international terms support is disabled, the search engine server facilitates searching of websites having international language support using the international search string; and

wherein the search engine server is adapted to deliver a first search result page via the network circuitry to a web browser associated with a client device, wherein the first search result page comprises links of a first few search results that link to a few websites.

2. The search engine server of claim 1 wherein synonyms of the conjugate target language terms are used to find the first few search results in the first search result page, and wherein translation operations are performed on search result content before providing at least some of the first search result page content to a user.

3. The search engine server of claim 1 further comprising an international support website database located in the memory, wherein the international support website database comprises lists of websites that provide information in the language of the international search string.

4. The search engine server of claim 1 wherein the target language is English.

5. The search engine server of claim 4 wherein the search engine server matches the retrieved conjugate English terms to text associated with certain websites that have international support.

6. The search engine server of claim 5 wherein the search engine server rank-orders the listed websites that have international support, based upon the extent of a match between the search string and text associated with the websites.

7. The search engine server of claim 6 wherein the search engine server delivers a first search result page comprising links of a first few of the ranked websites having international support for graphical display on a display screen associated with a client device.

8. The search engine server of claim 5 wherein the search engine server rank-orders the listed websites having international support, based upon a recorded popularity calculation associated with the search results.

9. The search engine server of claim 8 wherein the search engine server delivers a first search result page comprising links for the first few of the ranked websites having international support provided in the language used in the international search string.

10. A search engine server that supports delivery of search results based upon international search strings, the server comprising:

processing circuitry, memory, and a network interface that interoperate to provide a search string interpretation module that is capable of interpreting an international search string in English;

a conjugate terms database comprising a plurality of international strings and their corresponding conjugate English terms;

a thesaurus database having a plurality of synonyms for each of the conjugate English terms;

wherein the search string interpretation module interprets the international search string by:

determining the language of the international search string via correlation with the conjugate terms database, and

retrieving a conjugate English term from the conjugate terms database;

wherein, in response to determining that international terms support is enabled, the search engine server facilitates searching of websites having international language support using the conjugate English term, by employing the search string interpretation module, the conjugate terms database, and the thesaurus database;

wherein, in response to determining that international terms support is disabled, the search engine server facilitates searching of websites having international language support using the international search string, by employing the search string interpretation module, the conjugate terms database, and the thesaurus database; and

wherein the search engine server delivers information related to a first search result page to the network interface of the search engine server wherein the first search result page comprises links of a few of the searched websites configured for eventual access via a web browser of a client device.

11. The search engine server of claim 10 wherein the search string interpretation module also interprets the international search string by retrieving synonyms of the conjugate English terms from the thesaurus database.

12. The search engine server of claim 11 wherein the search engine server matches the synonyms of the conjugate English terms to that of text associated with websites having international support, resulting in a listing of websites that match the retrieved synonyms.

13. The search engine server of claim 12 wherein the search engine server ranks the listed websites having international support, wherein ranking is based upon the extent of the match between the conjugate English terms and text associated with the websites.

14. The search engine server of claim 13 wherein the search engine server delivers a first search result page comprising links of a first few of ranked websites having international support, wherein the ranked websites are provided in a language of the international search string.

15. The search engine server of claim 11 wherein the search engine server ranks the listed websites having international support, wherein ranking is based upon a popularity factor of the websites.

16. The search engine server of claim 15 wherein the search engine server delivers a first search result page comprising links of a first few of the ranked websites having international support, and wherein the search engine server performs language translation on content provided with the first few of the ranked websites.

17. A method performed by a search engine server having a network interface that supports delivery of search results based upon an international search string, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the international search string from a web browser via the network interface;

determining a supported language of the international search string via correlation with the conjugate terms database

determining conjugate English terms for the international search string, using a conjugate terms database;

identifying synonyms for the conjugate English terms, using a thesaurus database;

in response to determining that international terms support is enabled, selecting websites by matching the conjugate English terms and synonyms with text associated with the websites;

in response to determining that international terms support is disabled, selecting websites by matching the international search string with text associated with the websites;

ranking selected websites based upon extent of match and site popularity to create ranked websites; and

delivering a first search result page containing links of first few of the ranked websites to the network browser via the network interface.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the search engine server further provides website language translation services, whereby translation services are provided for web content that is not supported in the language of the international search string.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the step of selecting websites comprises selecting websites that provide support in the language used to provide the search string, and selecting the websites from an international support website database.

Assignments (7)