System and method for searching and matching data having ideogrammatic content

A computerized method of searching and matching input data to stored data storing in the memory, the method comprising:

• receiving the input data comprising a search string having a plurality of elements, at least some of the elements forming part of an ideogrammatic writing system;
• converting a subset of the plurality of elements to a set of terms using at least one method selected from the group consisting of polylogogrammatic semantic disambiguation, hanzee acronym expansion, kanji acronym expansion, and business word recognition;
• wherein the converting step comprises normalizing traditional and simple versions of the ideogrammatic writing system;
• generating a plurality of keys from the set of terms;
• determining from the stored data (a) optimization of said plurality of keys, thus yielding optimized keys, and (b) candidates that share a commonality with said optimized keys, thus yielding key intersections and a quantity for said key intersections;
• generating a cost function for said key intersections;
• prioritizing said key intersections according to said cost function, thus yielding cost-prioritized key intersections;
• retrieving match candidates in order of said cost-prioritized key intersections, and bounded by a pre-determined threshold and said quantity;
• wherein the retrieving step further comprises generating a matchgrade, a confidence code, and a match data profile for each match candidate based on a degree of match;
• and
• selecting a best match from the match candidates.