Real-time, cooperative, adaptive and persistent search system

An apparatus for searching chronologically stored related content objects for at least one requested search definition, comprising:

• a search queue structured and arranged to identify the related content objects to be searched and the at least one requested search definition to be applied to the related content objects;
• a search loader structured and arranged to determine whether new related content objects have been stored after the searching has begun, wherein, if new related content objects have been stored, one of the new related content objects is selected for searching and, if no new related content object have been stored, an older stored content object message is selected for searching;
• a search service structured and arranged to apply the at least one requested search definition to the content object selected for searching;
• and
• a search result store structured and arranged to identify which of the at least one search definition is found in the selected content object.

A method for searching a plurality of content objects for defined content fragments, comprising:

• scanning for an active search request;
• finding a least recently updated search request record comprising at least one content object reference;
• identifying a newest content object reference to be searched;
• retrieving content fragments that form at least one search definition associated with the content object record to be searched;
• searching for each of the at least one definitions in the content object reference to be searched;
• recording which of the possibly one or more search definitions are found in the searched content object record;
• discarding the searched content object reference;
• determining whether any additional content object references remain;
• and
• repeating the scanning, finding, identifying, retrieving, searching, recording, discarding and determining until an active search request is not found.

A method of searching content objects, comprising:

• receiving a message associated with a user
• indexing the message to form a new content object and storing the new content object with related content objects associated with the user;
• determining whether a search of the related content objects is active;
• if a search is active, selecting the new content object for searching;
• retrieving a search request comprising at least one requested search definition;
• applying the at least one requested search definition to the new content object;
• and
• identifying each at least one search definition found in the new content object.