Multi-step search result retrieval

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and operable to:
• receive a search request from a user interface provided by a third party;
• identify one or more search results based on the search request, each search result of the one or more search results having an associated plurality of data elements;
• process the one or more search results to distinguish, for each search result, between one or more first data elements providing human-readable description data as a search result descriptor and one or more second data elements providing content information;
• associate a unique identifier with each search result of the one or more search results, the unique identifier comprising an opaque token preventing access to the search result descriptor by the third party;
• send instructions causing display of the search result descriptor and associated unique identifier of each search result of at least a subset of the one or more search results in a user interface provided by the third party on a display device;
• receive from the scripted interface a request for additional data elements for a search result from a user interface provided by the third party, the search result corresponding to a selected search result descriptor, and the request including the unique identifier corresponding to the selected search result descriptor;
• check for inclusion of the unique identifier with the request for additional data elements, and
• send instructions causing display of one or more of the second data elements for the search result in a user interface provided by the third party, the search result corresponding to the selected search result descriptor and the unique identifier included with the request for additional data elements matching the unique identifier associated with the search result corresponding to the selected search result descriptor.

An article tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, encoded by a computer, comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are operable to:

• receive a search request from a user interface provided by a third party;
• identifying one or more search results based on the search request, each search result of the one or more search results having an associated plurality of data elements;
• process the one or more search results to distinguish, for each search result, between one or more first data elements providing human-readable description data as a search result descriptor and one or more second data elements providing content information;
• associate a unique identifier with each search result of the one or more search results, the unique identifier comprising an opaque token preventing access to the search result descriptor by the third party;
• send instructions causing display of the search result descriptor and associated unique identifier of each search result of at least a subset of the one or more search results in a user interface provided by the third party on a display device;
• receive from a user interface provided by the third party a request for additional data elements for a search result from the user interface, the search result corresponding to a selected search result descriptor, and the request including the unique identifier corresponding to the selected search result descriptor;
• check for inclusion of the unique identifier with the request for additional data elements, and
• send instructions causing display of one or more of the second data elements for the search result in a user interface provided by the third party, the search result corresponding to the selected search result descriptor and the unique identifier included with the request for additional data elements matching the unique identifier associated with the search result corresponding to the selected search result descriptor.