# US 2010/0169294 A1 · Search engine service utilizing the addition of noise

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- Number: US 2010/0169294 A1
- Document ID: US20100169294A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 12/345,996
- Filed: 2008-12-30
- Published: 2010-07-01
- Earliest claimed: 2008-12-30
- Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation
- Inventors: Benjamin S. Gerber
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20100169294A1

## CPC

- G06F 21/6263: {during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies}
- G06F 16/951: Indexing; Web crawling techniques
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

A method of disguising user search terms by adding a plurality of faux search phrases using a phrase-reuse-table comprising resulting faux search phrases and real search phrases the faux search phrases were derived from, a word-reuse-table comprising word substitutions used for words that revel patterns, and a word-table comprising words that reveal patterns sorted into groups. Faux search phrases are added by looking up the search phrases in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table, recording substitutions for words which reveal patterns in the word-reuse-table, and submitting the search terms and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine. Additionally, additional complexity may be used to generate additional faux search phrases.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of disguising user search terms and search phrases by adding a plurality of faux search phrases using a phrase-reuse-table comprising resulting faux search phrases and real search phrases the faux search phrases were derived from, word-reuse-table comprising word substitutions used for words that revel patterns, and a word-table comprising words that reveal patterns sorted into groups, comprising:
a) looking up the search phrases in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table, and
if the search phrases is in the phrase-reuse-table, retrieving a set of faux search phrases associated with the search phrase;
if the search phrases is not in the phrase-reuse-table, but any search terms are in the word-reuse-table, creating at least one set of faux search phrases using substitutions from the word-reuse-table;
if the search phrase is not in the phrase-reuse-table and at least one search term is not in the word-reuse-table, but are in the word-table, creating at least one set of faux search phrases using substitutions from the word-table;
b) recording substitutions for words which reveal patterns in the word-reuse-table; and
c) submitting the search terms and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, in which there is a phrase-table comprising phrases suggested by a predictive search for specific anchor words, the method further comprising, after looking up the search phrase in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table and before submitting the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine:
selecting at least one anchor word from at least one faux search phrase in the set of faux search phrases;
using the anchor word, retrieving at least one additional faux search phrase from the phrase-table;
selecting at least one faux search phrase from the additional faux search phrases similar in complexity to the real search phrase and faux search phrases derived from the phrase-reuse-table, word-reuse-table or word-table; and
adding the additional faux search phrase to the set of faux search phrases.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, in which there is a phrase table comprising phrases suggested by a predictive search for specific anchor words, the method further comprising, after looking up the search phrase in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table and before submitting the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine:
selecting at least one anchor word from at least one faux search phrase in the set of faux search phrases;
using the anchor word, retrieving at least one additional faux search phrase from an external search engine predictive search generator;
adding the additional faux search phrase to the phrase-table;
selecting at least one faux search phrase from the additional faux search phrases similar in complexity to the real search phrase and faux search phrases derived from the phrase-reuse-table, word-reuse-table or word-table; and
adding the additional faux search phrase to the set of faux search phrases.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising recording the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases in the phrase-reuse-table.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, in which the recording is performed prior to submitting the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases to the search engine.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving real search results and faux search results from the search engine, reporting the real search results to the user and discarding the faux search results.

### Claim 7

A modified client for disguising user search terms by adding a plurality of faux search phrases comprising:
a) phrase-reuse-table, comprising: resulting faux search phrases and real search phrases the faux search phrases were derived from;
b) word-reuse-table, comprising: word substitutions used for words that revel patterns; and
c) word-table, comprising: words that reveal patterns sorted into groups;
in which the modified client operates by:
i) looking up the search phrases in the phrase-reuse table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table, and
if the search phrases are in the phrase-reuse-table, retrieving a set of faux search phrases associated with the search phrase;
if the search phrases are not in the phrase-reuse-table, but any search terms are in the word-reuse-table, creating at least one set of faux search phrases using substitutions from the word-reuse-table;
if the search terms are not in the phrase-reuse-table and at least one search term is not in the word-reuse-table, but are in the word-table, creating at least one set of faux search phrases using substitutions from the word-table;
ii) recording substitutions for words which reveal patterns in the word-reuse-table; and
iii) submitting the search terms and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The client of claim 7, further comprising a phrase table comprising phrases suggested by a predictive search for specific anchor words and, after looking up the search phrases in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table and before submitting the search terms and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine, the client operates by:
selecting at least one anchor word from at least one faux search phrase in the set of faux search phrases;
using the anchor word, retrieving at least one additional faux search phrase from the phrase-table;
selecting at least one faux search phrase from the additional faux search phrases similar in complexity to the real search phrase and faux search phrases derived from the phrase-reuse-table, word-reuse-table or word-table; and
adding the additional faux search phrase to the set of faux search phrases.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The client of claim 7, in which there is a phrase table comprising phrases suggested by a predictive search for specific anchor words, the method further comprising, after looking up the search phrase in the phrase-reuse-table, and looking up the search terms in the word-reuse-table and word-table and before submitting the search terms and the set of faux search phrases to a search engine, the client operates by:
selecting at least one anchor word from at least one faux search phrase in the set of faux search phrases;
using the anchor word, retrieving at least one additional faux search phrase from an external search engine predictive search generator;
adding the additional faux search phrase to the phrase-table;
selecting at least one faux search phrase from the additional faux search phrases similar in complexity to the real search phrase and faux search phrases derived from the phrase-reuse-table, word-reuse-table or word-table; and
adding the additional faux search phrase to the set of faux search phrases.

### Claim 10 (depends on 7)

The client of claim 7, further comprising recording the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases in the phrase-reuse-table.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The client of claim 10, in which the recording is performed prior to submitting the search phrase and the set of faux search phrases to the search engine.

### Claim 12 (depends on 7)

The client of claim 7, further comprising receiving real search results and faux search results from the search engine, reporting the real search results to the user and discarding the faux search results.