Heterogeneous content indexing and searching
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsPrashant Kamani, Daniel D. Fisher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments are provided to manage information associated with a number of disparate information sources. Metadata and/or other information can be extracted from a file, data stream, or other information source. The extracted metadata and/or other information can be used when performing indexing and searching operations. In one embodiment, a system includes a data structure having a uniform metadata representation and metadata handler for interacting with the data structure. The data structure can be associated with an underlying file or some other information source. The embodiments provide extensibility and can be tailored according to a desired implementation.
Claims20
A computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, manage information by:
- monitoring a storage medium that includes a number of information sources, wherein each information source includes a uniform representation of metadata and can be associated with an underlying information source;
- extracting metadata from the number of information sources;
- and,
- indexing the metadata as part of an indexing operation.
A system to manage information comprising:
- a data structure including a uniform representation of metadata which can be associated with an underlying information source, wherein the underlying information source can include an original representation of metadata and other information;
- a metadata handler configured to filter metadata from the data structure;
- and
- an indexing component to index the extracted metadata and other information and associate the extracted metadata and other information with the underlying information source.
A method of managing information comprising:
- creating a data structure including a uniform representation of metadata, wherein the metadata is associated with an original information source;
- filtering the metadata associated with the data structure;
- using the filtered metadata to index against the original information source;
- and
- returning a search result associated with a search request using the filtered metadata.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.