Semantically associated text index and the population and use thereof

A method of displaying semantically associated text search results using a text index comprising:

• one or more content records corresponding to an electronic document, the content records identifying one or more text terms present within the electronic document;
• one or more term association records associating a text term present within the electronic document identified by a content record with a pre-determined semantic definition of the text term;
• one or more content association records linking a term association record of the one or more term association records with a content records of the one or more content records;
• said method comprising:
• enabling a user to select, in a search engine, one or more user-defined text search terms desired to be located within the text index;
• for user-defined text search terms having term association records within the text index, iteratively presenting to the user a list of pre-determined semantic definitions associated with each of the one or more user-defined text search terms and enabling the user to select a pre-determined semantic definition of those one or more user-defined text search terms;
• searching the content association records contained within the text index using the user-defined text search terms to locate electronic documents previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definition, to form a semantically relevant results set;
• displaying the semantically relevant results set to the user;
• and
• updating or creating a new content association record during the use of the text index by associating a particular electronic document with the user-defined text search terms, and selected pre-determined semantic definition of the user-defined text search terms, used to locate the particular electronic document, and wherein one or more term association records are updated or created during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms.

A method of displaying a semantically associated text search result from a search engine, using a text index comprising:

• one or more content records corresponding to an electronic document, the content records identifying one or more text terms present within the electronic document;
• one or more term association records associating a text term present within the electronic document identified by a content record with a pre-determined semantic definition of the text term;
• one or more content association records linking a term association record of the one or more term association records with a content record of the one or more content records;
• said method comprising:
• enabling a user to select, in a search engine, one or more user-defined text search terms desired to be located;
• for user-defined text search terms having term association records within the text index, iteratively presenting to the user a list of pre-determined semantic definitions associated each of the one or more user-defined text search terms and enabling the user to select a pre-determined semantic definition of each of the one or more user-defined text search terms;
• searching the content association records contained within the text index using the user-defined text search terms to locate electronic documents previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definition, to form a semantically relevant results set;
• executing a text search against a search engine for the selected user-defined text search terms, to form a search engine results set;
• ranking the search engine results set based upon the contents of the semantically relevant results set;
• displaying the ranked search engine results set to the user;
• and
• updating or creating a new content association record during the use of the text index by associating a particular electronic document with the user-defined text search terms, and selected pre-determined semantic definition of the user-defined text search terms, used to locate the particular electronic document, and wherein new term association records are updated or created during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms.

A method of displaying a semantically associated text search result from a search engine, using a text index comprising:

• one or more content records corresponding to an electronic document, the content records identifying one or more text search terms present within the electronic document;
• one or more term association records associating a text term present within the electronic document identified by a content record with a pre-determined semantic definition of the text term;
• one or more content association records linking a term association record of the one or more term association records with a content record of the one or more content records;
• said method comprising:
• enabling a user to select, in a search engine, one or more user-defined text search terms desired to be located;
• for user-defined text search terms having term association records within the text index, iteratively presenting to the user a list of pre-determined semantic definitions associated with each of the one or more user-defined text search terms and enabling the user to select a pre-determined semantic definition of those one or more user-defined text search terms;
• searching the content association records contained within the text index using user-defined text search terms to locate electronic documents previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definition, to form a semantically relevant results set;
• executing a text search against the search engine for the selected user-defined text search terms, to form a search engine results set;
• combining the search engine results set and the semantically relevant results set, to yield a combined results set;
• displaying the combined results set to the user;
• and
• updating or creating a content association record during the use of the text index by associating a particular electronic document with the user-defined text search terms, and selected pre-determined semantic definition of the user-defined text search terms, used to locate the particular electronic document, and wherein new term association records are updated or created during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms.

A data processing system for displaying a semantically associated text search result of a plurality of electronic documents, said data processing system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor;
• a display device operative to display data;
• and
• a program module stored in the memory and operative for providing instructions to the at least one processor, the at least one processor responsive to the instructions of the program module,
• wherein the program module is configured to access a text index comprising:
• one or more content records corresponding to an electronic document, the content records identifying one or more text search terms present within the electronic document;
• one or more term association records associating a text term present within the electronic document identified by a content record with a pre-determined semantic definition of the text term;
• one or more content association records linking a term association record of the one or more term association records with a content record of the one or more content records;
• wherein the program module is further configured for:
• enabling a user to select, in a search engine, one or more user-defined text search terms desired to be located within the text index;
• for user-defined text search terms having term association records within the text index, iteratively presenting to the user a list of pre-determined semantic definitions associated with each of the one or more user-defined text search terms and enabling the user to select a pre-determined semantic definition of those one or more user-defined text search terms;
• searching the content association records contained within the text index using the user-defined text search terms to locate electronic documents previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definition, to form a semantically relevant results set;
• displaying the semantically relevant results set to the user;
• and
• updating or creating a content association record during the use of the text index by associating a particular electronic document with the user-defined text search terms, and selected pre-determined semantic definition of the user-defined text search terms, used to locate the particular electronic document, and wherein new term association records are updated or created during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms.

A method of associating pre-determined semantic definitions with user-defined text search terms contained within at least one electronic document, the method comprising:

• receiving user input in a search engine indicating at least one user-defined text search term desired to be located in at least one electronic document;
• iteratively presenting to a user at least one pre-determined semantic definition for the at least one user-defined text search term from a plurality of term association records contained within a text index, each term association record corresponding to one pre-determined semantic definition for the user-defined text search term;
• enabling the user to iteratively select the desired pre-determined semantic definition for each at least one user-defined text search term;
• executing a text search for the user-defined text search terms against a text catalog containing the text contents of electronic documents, to return a text search result;
• enabling the user to select one or more results from the text search result satisfying a search criteria of the user;
• creating or updating content association records, based upon a positive selection of results from the text index search, within the text index for each user-defined text search term for which a pre-determined semantic definition was selected by the user, linking the electronic document with the selected pre-determined semantic definitions for the user-defined text search terms used to reach that result;
• creating or updating term association records during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms;
• and
• wherein the content association records created or updated within the text index are subsequently searched using user-defined text search terms to locate at least one electronic document previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definitions to deliver semantically relevant text search results.

A data processing system for associating pre-determined semantic definitions with user-defined text search terms contained within at least one electronic document, said data processing system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a memory operatively coupled to the at least one processor;
• a program module stored in the memory and operative for providing instructions to the at least one processor, the at least one processor responsive to the instructions of the program module;
• the program module configured for:
• receiving user input in a search engine indicating at least one user-defined text search term desired to be located in at least one electronic document;
• iteratively presenting to a user at least one pre-determined semantic definition for at least one user-defined text search term from a plurality of term association records contained within a text index, each term association record corresponding pre-determined to one semantic definition for the at least one user-defined text search term;
• enabling the user to iteratively select a desired pre-determined semantic definition for each at least one user-defined text search term;
• executing a text search for the user-defined text search terms against a text catalog containing text contents of electronic documents, to return a text search result;
• enabling the user to select one or more results from the text search result satisfying a search criteria of the user;
• creating or updating content association records, based upon a positive selection of results from the text index search, within a text index for each user-defined text search term for which a pre-determined semantic definition was selected by the user, linking the electronic document with the selected pre-determined semantic definitions for the user-defined text search terms used to reach that result;
• creating or updating term association records during the use of the text index by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with user-defined text search terms;
• and
• wherein the content association records created or updated within the text index are subsequently searched using user-defined text search terms to locate at least one electronic document previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined text search terms in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definitions to deliver semantically relevant text search results.

A method of providing combined search engine results, the method comprising:

• enabling a user to enter user-defined search query parameters through a first search engine system and interface;
• executing a search against the contents of a first content database using the user-defined search query parameters, to return a first results set;
• passing the user-defined search query parameters from the first search engine system to at least one additional separate search engine system and executing searches against the content databases of said additional separate search engine systems to return at least one additional results set, based on a user selection of one or more of a plurality of pre-determined semantic definitions stored in association with the search query parameters and iteratively presented to the user;
• returning the additional results sets to the first search engine system, the additional results sets including one of a plurality of electronic documents;
• combining the first results set and the additional results sets for display to the user as a single end search result;
• and
• updating or creating content association records, based on the user selection of the one or more pre-determined semantic definitions, which associate the selected one or more of the pre-determined semantic definitions for the user-defined search query parameters and selected one of the plurality of electronic documents;
• updating or creating term association records, based on the use of search engine system by enabling the user to select pre-determined semantic definitions for association with the user-defined search query parameters;
• and
• wherein the content association records created or updated are subsequently searched using user-defined search query parameters to locate at least one electronic document previously catalogued as containing the one or more user-defined search query parameters in association with the selected pre-determined semantic definitions to deliver a subsequent results set.