Combinators to build a search engine

1. A method of counting items in a database system comprising:

at the database system having one or more nodes comprising,

one or more processors and memory, the memory of the one or more nodes storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors;

identifying an M number of items;

counting unique items of the M number of items;

determining a logcount for the unique items of the M number of items; and

storing the logcount for the unique items,

wherein determining a logcount comprises,

partitioning each of the unique items of the M number of items into a set of N number of parts, wherein each N part includes a subset of the unique items of the M number of items and wherein each subset of unique items is expressed as a bit value;

finding a lowest unset bit in each of the N number of parts for each subset of the M number of items;

setting the lowest bit in N intermediate values for each subset of unique items in the set of N parts;

averaging the lowest unset bit values of the N intermediate values for each set of N parts; and

applying the averaged value as a log value expressed in powers-of-two.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising,

after applying the averaged value as a log value expressed in power-of-two,

storing in the memory of the database the N intermediate values.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a logcount further includes determining an approximate count for the set of unique items to an accuracy equal to approximately plus or minus 50%.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein larger bit values in the N intermediate values are less likely to be set than smaller bit sets.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each N part in the set of N parts includes 32 bits and total logcount storage needed includes 128 bits.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the M number of items include URLs of incoming links to a website.

7. The method of claim 1 , where the M number of items include recipients of email with a given signature, used to detect email spam.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the M number of items include Class-C IP networks of senders of email with a given signature, used to detect email spam from bot nets.

9. The method of claim 1 , where the M number of items include geographical locations of web pages which link a webpage.

10. The method of claim 1 , where the M number of items include IP subnets of the internet servers containing web pages which link a webpage.

11. A method of counting items in a database system comprising:

at the database system having one or more nodes comprising one or more processors and memory, the memory of the one or more nodes storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors;

identifying an M number of items;

counting unique items of the M number of items;

determining a logcount for the unique items of the M number of items; and

storing the logcount for the unique items,

wherein determining a logcount includes:

partitioning each of the unique items of the M number of items into a set of N number of parts,

wherein each N part includes a subset of the unique items of the M number of items, and

wherein each subset of unique items is expressed as a bit value;

finding a lowest unset bit in each of the N number of parts for each subset of the M number of items;

choosing which bit to set in the N intermediate values using an arbitrary exponential decay factor;

averaging the lowest unset bit values of the N intermediate values for each set of N parts; and

applying the average value as a log value expressed with an arbitrary base related to the arbitrary exponential decay factor.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein larger bit values in the N intermediate values are less likely to be set than smaller bit sets.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein each N part in the set of N parts includes 32 bits and total logcount storage needed includes 128 bits.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the M number of items include URLs of incoming links to a website.

15. The method of claim 11 where the M number of items include recipients of email with a given signature, used to detect email spam.

16. The method of claim 11 where the M number of items include Class-C IP networks of senders of email with a given signature, used to detect email spam from bot nets.

17. The method of claim 11 where the M number of items include geographical locations of web pages which link a webpage.

18. The method of claim 11 where the M number of items include IP subnets of the internet servers containing web pages which link a webpage.