EP1269355A1

EP1269355A1 - Hypermedia resource search engine and related indexing method

Info

Publication number: EP1269355A1
Application number: EP01921462A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michel Plu
Original assignee: France Telecom SA
Current assignee: Orange SA
Priority date: 2000-04-06
Filing date: 2001-04-03
Publication date: 2003-01-02
Also published as: AU2001248451A1; FR2807537B1; FR2807537A1; PL359716A1; US20030187833A1; WO2001077890A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a search engine comprising a module for indexing accessible resources on a computer network for creating and updating an indexing base, a module for searching resources on the network adapted to interrogate an indexing base from a request presented by a user and for supplying, in response, the Web address (URL) corresponding to the request, the indexing module comprising means for collecting main resources, means for retrieving dependent resources from the main resources and means for indexing resources to retrieve therefrom descriptors. Furthermore, the indexing module comprises means associating each dependent resource to at most one main resource depending on the hypermedia links between said dependent resources and the main resource.

Description

Hypermedia resource search engine and associated indexing method

The present invention relates to a search engine comprising on the one hand a module for indexing resources accessible on a computer network for the creation and updating of an indexing base, on the other hand a module for searching resources on the network adapted to interrogate the indexing base from a request made by a user and to provide, in response, the universal URL address of the resources corresponding to the request, the indexing module comprising means for collection of main resources, means of extracting dependent resources from the main resources and means of indexing the resources to extract descriptors therefrom.

Today there are such search engines. Among these, the full page search engines, operate on the following principle:

- from an initial list of universal URL addresses, for example defined manually, the indexing module automatically collects the resources accessible at these addresses;

the indexing means extract from each of these resources an index by associating with it a set of words characterizing its content; and

the extraction means extract from each resource previously indexed the set of universal URL addresses from the hypertext links which they contain, thus making it possible to add new URL addresses to the initial list.

Thus, the process can be repeated to obtain a very large number of indexed resources in the end.

In addition, this loop is executed periodically in order to update the indexing base according to the evolution of the content of the resources of the initial list, as well as the appearance of new links.

In response to a request made by a user, the search engine returns the universal URL addresses of the resources corresponding to the request, by ordering them from a word counting system in the indexing base. In most cases, it then returns thousands of responses - for a request. In addition, the order of presentation of these responses does not always solve the problem of searching in these too many resources.

C rCcIu Mi! T-! I- E. f ϋîcP R rïECi-j'tP '-. '-i TvL.i'ï ".l ^{* *} • ^* - t" - ^* J. i {t .c, ^• X ^* - • _^ ^• r-, -sf5) \ Indeed, this order does not correspond to the needs of the user, such as the use of the resources sought, the quality of information desired or any other personal criterion of the user.

Another problem related to this type of search engines is that the answers provided give direct access to the content of resources whose appreciation by the user sometimes depends on the previous reading of other resources.

The invention aims to remedy the drawbacks of conventional search engines by creating a search engine giving access to numerous resources while improving the quality of the responses provided, in particular according to the needs of the user.

The subject of the invention is therefore a search engine of the aforementioned type, characterized in that the indexing module also comprises means for associating each dependent resource with at most one main resource as a function of the hypertext type links between these dependent resources and the main resource

In this way, the main resources of a first information base are collected and indexed. This is supplemented by a large number of resources identified from the hypertext links present in the main resources.

The search engine according to the invention may also include one or more of the following characteristics

the indexing module includes means for transferring a copy of the descriptors from the main resources to the dependent resources associated with them,

the search module comprises means for filtering a resource indexed by the indexing module, by combined processing of the descriptors extracted from this resource and of the descriptors transferred to this resource, the search module is adapted to provide, in response to a request, the universal URL address of a corresponding dependent resource to the request, associated with the hypertext link of the main resource associated with this dependent resource,

the association means comprise means for selecting at most one main resource from a set of main resources capable of being associated with a dependent resource, by minimizing a distance calculated between the dependent resource and each main resource; and

- the distance between two resources is a decreasing function of the number of common directories between the universal URL addresses of the two resources

The invention also relates to a method of indexing resources accessible on a computer network for the creation and updating of an indexing base comprising the following steps

- collection of main resources, - indexing of main resources,

- extraction of dependent resources from the main resources, characterized in that it further comprises the following steps

- association of each dependent resource with at most one main resource as a function of the hypertext links between these dependent resources and the main resource, and

- transfer of a copy of the descriptors of the main resources to the dependent resources associated with them

The indexing method according to the invention may also include a step of excluding, from the indexing base, any dependent resource not associated with a main resource.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the description which follows, given solely by way of example and made with reference to the appended drawings in which - FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the general structure of an engine. research according to the invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a search engine according to the invention, and

- Figure 3 is a flowchart detailing the operation of means for associating a dependent resource with at most one main resource, of a search engine according to the invention

A search engine according to the invention represented in FIG. 1 comprises a server 2 connected, by the Internet network, on the one hand to a database 4 constituted by the World Spider Web, conventionally called the Web, of elsewhere at an access terminal 6 of a user in search of resources available on the Web

The server 2 comprises a database 8 of directories A directory comprises a restricted set of universal addresses URLs of main resources each corresponding to the first page of a multimedia document These main resources are associated with external descriptors, for example recorded manually by librarians possibly assisted by computer tools These external descriptors correspond to a classification in a nomenclature of themes, to a title, to a textual presentation of the main resources, more generally to information specifying the context of the documents considered

The server 2 also includes an indexing base 10, comprising all of the descriptors of the resources accessible by the search engine. It notably includes the external descriptors of the main resources as described above. The server 2 also includes an indexing module 12 , comprising means of automatic indexing of resources These are capable of extracting external descriptors by analyzing the content of the resources, in a conventional manner This module also includes a method of association of dependent resources with a main resource and of transfer external descriptors of a main resource to its dependent resources The operation of this module will be detailed below, during the description of Figure 2 The indexing module is therefore connected as input to the directory database 8 as well as to the Web 4, in order to access resources and, at output, to the indexing base 10, for the supply of descriptors.

The server 2 finally comprises a search module 14 connected on the one hand to the indexing base 10, on the other hand to the access terminal 6 for the supply to a user, of relevant resources in response to a request from the user -this.

The operation of the search engine, the structure of which has been described previously, is shown in FIG. 2. The indexing module 12 proceeds to register descriptors in the indexing base 10, in several stages.

During a first collection step 16, the indexing module 12 accesses the main resources accessible on the Web 4, by receiving as input their universal addresses URL, stored in the database 8 of directories.

During a second extraction step 18, the extraction means extract from each main resource all of the universal URL addresses of the hypertext links that they contain. New, dependent resources are thus recovered, from which we can again extract the universal URL addresses from the hypertext links that they themselves contain. This recursive method of extracting dependent resources from a first set of main resources is known from the state of the art. Said first set, conventionally called seed, is here extracted from the directory database 8. During a third association step 20, extraction means associate each dependent resource with at most one main resource. This association is a function of the number, type or any attribute of the hypertext links that must be followed to reach the dependent resource from the universal URL address of the main resource. At the end of this step, the dependent resources not associated with a main resource are eliminated. The process will be detailed during the description of FIG. 3. During a fourth transfer step 22, transfer means copy the external descriptors of each main resource and transfer them to all the dependent resources associated with it.

Finally, during a fifth indexing step 24, the indexing means extract descriptors automatically for each resource. During this step, the indexing module 12 stores in the indexing base 10 the descriptors relating to each resource, these comprising the descriptors extracted automatically as well as the external descriptors transferred by copy to a dependent resource from the main resource associated with this dependent resource, or directly extracted from the directory database 8 for a main resource.

The process described above, from the first to the fifth step, is repeated regularly in order to keep the indexing base up to date according to the evolution of the main resources of the directory database, as well as the evolution hypertext links they contain.

When the indexing base is up to date, the user accesses a request form defined by the search module 14. This request form takes the form of an HTML presentation page. It allows the user to enter at least one keyword and to specify the context of his search by selecting the values of a certain number of descriptors from a list offered. The descriptors of the proposed list correspond to at least some of the external descriptors stored in the database 8 of directories and describing the main resources. They allow for example to specify a research area, the age range of the user, etc. These details allow the search module to filter the resources corresponding to the keywords of the query.

The responses therefore consist of the main and dependent resources having extracted descriptors corresponding to the keywords and external descriptor values corresponding to those selected by the user. Among the responses, each dependent resource, returned by the search module to the user, is accompanied by a hypertext link to the main resource associated with this dependent resource.

The method of associating a dependent resource with at most one main resource, among a set of N main resources, is in accordance with the flow diagram represented in FIG. 3

An initialization step 100 initializes an index i to 1 and a counter L to zero

Then, an analysis step 102 identifies a path, that is to say a series of hypertext links, which must be followed in order to reach the dependent resource from the universal address URL of the i-th main resource.

Then, a series of p steps, 104- ,,, 104 _p , constitutes a set of rules relating to the paths identified in step 102, and more particularly, on the number of links, their type and their attributes.

Seven types of links are defined in a classic way

- presentation structure links, such as frames, tables or elements included,

- transverse links, between two files in the same directory, - parallel links, for files located in different directories, themselves located in the same directory,

- external links, between files located on different sites,

- deeper links, when the file of the dependent resource is located in a sub-directory of the directory of the file of the main resource,

- the upper links, when the main resource file is located in a sub-directory of the directory of the dependent resource file, and

- menu links, for links included in a resource for which the number of included links divided by the size of the resource measured in bytes is greater than a predetermined threshold The attributes are conventionally associated with the anchors of the links and known from the state of the art.

If at least one of the rules is not checked, then the method is carried over to a step 108. If all the rules are checked, then the i-th main resource is temporarily associated with the dependent resource and the process is carried over in a step 106. A rule is for example “the number of links is less than or equal to 4”, “no link is of external type”, etc.

Step 106 increments the value of the counter L by one unit, so that L gives the number of main resources associated with the dependent resource, and defers the method to step 108

The looping step 108 tests the value of the index i. If this index is strictly less than N, then the method goes to step 1 10, otherwise, that is to say if i is equal to N, the method goes to step 112.

Step 110 increments the value of the index i by one unit and defers the process to step 102.

Step 112 tests the value of the counter L If L is equal to 0, then the method is carried over to a step 114. Otherwise, the method is carried over to a subsequent step 116.

Exclusion step 114 removes the dependent resource from the indexing base and ends the association process for the dependent resource considered

Step 116 is a test step on the value L If L is strictly greater than 1, then the process is moved to step 1 18 otherwise it is transferred to a step 120 ^The step 118 selects from the main resources temporarily associated with the dependent resource, that which minimizes a distance relative to the dependent resource This distance is a decreasing function of the number of common directories between the universal URL addresses of two resources The method is then carried over to step 120 if a main resource is selected If several main resources minimize the distance, the process is carried over to step 114 The end of process step 120 validates the association between the dependent resource and the single main resource selected.

It is clear that a search engine according to the invention overcomes the drawbacks of conventional search engines. Indeed, an intelligent indexing of main resources, adapted to take into account the context of a request launched by a user, allows them to be classified into major categories and quality filtering of the responses to the request. In addition, this indexing is accompanied by the association of a very large number of dependent resources with each of these main resources, which improves the quantity while retaining the quality of the responses provided.

Another advantage of this search engine is the possibility that it offers to present to a user a resource meeting the criteria of his request, accompanied by a more general main resource, explaining its context.

Claims

1. Search engine comprising on the one hand an indexing module of resources accessible on a computer network for the creation and updating of an indexing base, on the other hand a module of searching for resources on the network adapted to interrogate the indexing base from a request formulated by a user and to provide, in response, the universal URL address of the resources corresponding to the request, the indexing module comprising means for collecting resources main, means for extracting dependent resources from the main resources and means for indexing the resources to extract descriptors therefrom, characterized in that the indexing module also comprises means for associating each dependent resource to at most one main resource according to the hypertext type links between these dependent resources and the main resource.

2. Search engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the indexing module comprises means for transferring a copy of the descriptors from the main resources to the dependent resources associated with them.

3. Search engine according to claim 2, characterized in that the search module comprises means for filtering a resource indexed by the indexing module, by combined processing of the descriptors extracted from this resource and of the descriptors transferred to this resource.

4. Search engine according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the search module is adapted to provide, in response to a request, the universal URL address of a dependent resource corresponding to the request, associated to the hypertext link of the main resource associated with this dependent resource.

5. Search engine according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the association means comprise means for selecting at most one main resource from a set of main resources capable of being associated with a resource dependent, by minimization of a calculated distance between the dependent resource and each main resource.

6. Search engine according to claim 5, characterized in that the distance between two resources is a decreasing function of the number of common directories between the universal URL addresses of the two resources.

7. Method for indexing resources accessible on a computer network for creating and updating an indexing base, comprising the following steps:

- collection of main resources; - indexing of main resources;

- extraction of dependent resources from main resources; characterized in that it further comprises the following steps:

- association of each dependent resource with at most one main resource according to the hypertext links between these dependent resources and the main resource; and

- transfer of a copy of the descriptors of the main resources to the dependent resources associated with them.

8. Indexing method according to claim 7, characterized in that it further comprises a step of excluding, from the indexing base, any dependent resource not associated with a main resource.