System and method for computer based searches using genetic algorithms

A method for conducting a computer based search of pages available on a digital communications network comprising:

• posting a user search query from a user on a bidding bulletin board;
• receiving a bid from a plurality of agents at said bidding bulletin board in response to the user search query, wherein each of the agents is associated with a search result providing a link to and summary of one of the pages;
• and
• displaying a subset of the search results to the user when the bulletin board accepts a subset of the bids of the agents based on a ranking of amounts of the bids, wherein the bid amounts submitted by each of the agents is determined by behavioral rules for each of the agents.

A search method for facilitating effective searching for web pages on a digital communications network, comprising:

• providing a search bulletin board accessible by users of the network for receiving search requests from the users, wherein each of the search requests specifies query information;
• generating a plurality of search engine agents associated with the search bulletin board and each operationally defined by a set of behavioral rules active in the agents, wherein the behavioral rules differ for at least some of the agents;
• operating at least a portion of the agents to become owners of one or more of the web pages,
• receiving a new search request at the search bulletin board from one of the users;
• operating the search bulletin board to provide access to the new search request by each of the agents;
• with each of the agents that own one or more of the web pages, processing the query information in the new search request to identify a matching one of the owned web pages and generate a search result for the matching ones;
• based on the active behavioral rules, forming a bid having a bid amount with the agents that identified the matching ones of the owned web pages;
• operating at least a portion of the agents that identified the matching ones to submit the formed bids including the bid amounts to the search bulletin board;
• operating the search bulletin board to accept one or more of the search results based on the bid amounts of the bids;
• and
• displaying to the user associated with the new search request the accepted one or more of the search results.