Importance

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Abstract

A distributed computer database system includes one or more front end computers, one or more home nodes, one or more index nodes and one or more object nodes interconnected by a network into a search engine for retrieval of hypertext documents. A query from a user is transmitted to one of the front end computers, which forwards the query to one of the home nodes, of the search engine. The home node parses the query into one or more elementary queries and schedules the elementary queries for processing. Each elementary query can be one of a number of types, including an index query, a link query or an object query. To process an index query or link query, the home node extracts features from the index query or link query, fragments the extracted features into feature fragments, and hashes these features. Each hashed feature fragment is transmitted to one index node on the network. Each index node on the network that receives a hashed feature fragment uses the hashed feature fragment of the index query or link query to perform a search on its respective partition of the database. The results of the searches of the local databases are gathered by the home node. To process an object query, the home node transmits the object identifier contained in the object query to the object node on the network containing the information associated with the object. The object node that receives the object query uses the object identifier to perform a search on its respective partition of the database. The results of the search of the local database are transmitted to the home node. The home node processes the results for each elementary query according to the specifications in the query. When all processing is completed by the home node, the results are returned to the front end node, which formats the results for presentation to the user.

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First Claim