SEARCHING, SORTING, AND DISPLAYING VIDEO CLIPS AND SOUND FILES BY RELEVANCE
A documents database has a plurality of documents, including but not limited to text files, video clips and sound files. Each document is associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, and each category has at least one keyword. A search request having at least one search term is received from a user, and a categories database is searched for categories having a keyword corresponding to the user search term to identify first level categories. The other keywords from the identified first level categories are retrieved and the documents database is searched for documents having a user search term or a retrieved keyword. The identified documents are then ranked and presented to the user. Other search expansion techniques, and display techniques, are also discussed.
1 . A method for searching for documents in a documents database, the documents database having a plurality of documents, each document being associated with at least one category of a plurality of categories in a categories database, each category comprising at least one keyword, the method comprising:
receiving a search request from a user, the search request having at least one user search term;
searching a categories database for categories having at least keyword corresponding to at least one said user search term to identify at least one first level category;
identifying first level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one first level category for the presence of at least one user search term;
ranking the first level documents; and
presenting to the user at least part of one ranked document, at least some information about at least one ranked document, or a link to the document.
2 . The method of claim 1 and, prior to presenting, further comprising:
if the number of first level documents is less than a predetermined number of documents then identifying at least one second level category related to at least one first level category;
identifying second level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one second level category for the presence of at least one user search term; and
wherein ranking is performed on the combination of the first level documents and the second level documents.
3 . The method of claim 2 and further comprising defining two categories to be related if at least one of the following occurs:
an administrator designates that the two categories are related; or
both categories have at least one keyword in common; or
a document is received and the provider of the document has designated that the document is associated with both categories; or
at least a predetermined number of user searches have been received which used search terms but none of the search terms were keywords in both categories.
4 . The method of claim 1 and, prior to presenting the ranked documents, further comprising:
if the number of first level documents is less than a predetermined number of documents then identifying at least one second level category related to at least one first level category;
identifying second level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one second level category for the presence of at least one user search term;
if the number of the first level documents and the second level documents is greater than the predetermined number of documents then performing ranking on the combination of the first level documents and the second level documents;
if the total number of the first level documents and the second level documents is less than the predetermined number of documents then identifying at least one third level category related to at least one second level category;
identifying third level documents by searching the documents associated with at least one third level category for the presence of at least one user search term; and
wherein ranking is performed on the combination of the first level documents, the second level documents, and the third level documents.
5 . The method of claim 1 and, prior to presenting the ranked documents, further comprising:
if the number of first level documents is less than a predetermined number of documents then identifying at least two second level categories;
ranking the second level categories;
identifying second level documents by searching the documents associated with the highest ranked second level category for the presence of at least one user search term;
if the total number of the first level documents and the second level documents is greater than the predetermined number of documents then performing ranking on the combination of the first level documents and the second level documents;
if the total number of the first level documents and the second level documents is less than the predetermined number of documents then identifying additional documents as second level documents by searching the documents associated with the second highest ranked second level category for at least one user search term;
if the total number of the first level documents and the second level documents is greater than the predetermined number of documents then performing ranking on the combination of the first level documents and the second level documents.
6 . The method of claim 1 and further comprising applying event condition criteria to the documents to change the ranking of at least one document.
7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the event condition criteria is applied to remove at least one document prior to ranking the documents.
8 . The method of claim 6 wherein the event condition criteria is applied to change the ranking of at least one document after ranking the documents.
9 . The method of claim 6 wherein applying event condition criteria comprises:
reading an event condition associated with a document;
if the event condition has occurred then either discarding the document or changing the ranking of the document.
10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the event condition is a date.
11 . The method of claim 9 wherein the event condition is an election.
12 . The method of claim 9 wherein the event condition is a sports game.
13 . The method of claim 9 wherein the event condition is a championship game.
14 . The method of claim 6 and further comprising discarding the document if the ranking of the document is below a predetermined threshold.
15 . The method of claim 6 wherein the ranking of the document is reduced.
16 . The method of claim 6 wherein the ranking of the document is abruptly reduced.
17 . The method of claim 6 wherein the ranking of the document is reduced over a predetermined period of time.
18 . The method of claim 6 wherein applying event condition criteria comprises:
reading an event condition associated with a document;
if the event condition has not occurred then increasing the ranking of the document.
19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the ranking of the document is increased over a predetermined period of time occurring before the event condition.
20 . The method of claim 1 wherein the search request further comprises search setting limitations and, after searching the documents database, the method further comprises applying the search setting limitations to the documents to change the ranking at least one document to the search request.
21 . The method of claim 20 wherein applying the search setting limitations comprises:
reading a search setting limitation associated with the search;
if a document does not meet the search limitation then discarding the document.
22 . The method of claim 20 wherein the search setting limitation is at least one of an occurrence start date, an occurrence end date, a posted start date, a posted end date, a speech, a town-hall meeting, a debate, an advertisement, an interview, a candidate for a political office, a holder of a political office, a media document, a special interest group document, a political party document, a user-generated document, a type of political race, a year of a political race, a country, a state, a county, a city, a municipality, or a regional governmental body.
23 . The method of claim 5 and, after ranking the second level categories, discarding second level categories which have a ranking below a predetermined ranking level.
24 . The method of claim 5 wherein ranking the second level categories comprises ranking the second level categories by the weight of a relationship between a first level category and a related second level category.
25 . The method of claim 24 wherein the weight is determined by at least one of: a weight approved by a vote of administrators; the number of keywords that the first level category and the related second level category have in common; the number of documents that the first level category and the related second level category have in common; or the number of user searches which do not have a search term which is common to the first level category and the related second level category.
26 . A method of ranking documents produced by a search, comprising:
receiving search result documents, each document having an initial ranking;
applying event condition criteria to the documents to change the ranking of at least one document to the search request; and
providing re-ranked search result documents.
27 . The method of claim 26 wherein applying event condition criteria comprises:
reading an event condition associated with a document;
if the event condition has occurred then discarding the document.
28 . The method of claim 27 wherein the event condition is a date.
29 . The method of claim 27 wherein the event condition is an election.
30 . The method of claim 26 wherein applying event condition criteria comprises:
reading an event condition associated with a document;
if the event condition has occurred then reducing the ranking of the document to the search request.
31 . The method of claim 30 and further comprising discarding the document if the ranking of the document is below a predetermined threshold.
32 . The method of claim 30 wherein the ranking of the document is abruptly reduced.
33 . The method of claim 30 wherein the ranking of the document is reduced over a predetermined period of time.
34 . The method of claim 26 wherein applying event condition criteria comprises:
reading an event condition associated with a document;
if the event condition has not occurred then increasing the ranking of the document.
35 . The method of claim 34 wherein the ranking of the document is increased over a predetermined period of time occurring before the event condition.
36 . The method of claim 34 wherein the event condition is a date.
37 . The method of claim 34 wherein the event condition is an election.