1. A method of generating search results comprising:
receiving a search request from a user;
querying a searchable index as a function of the received search request to identify electronic documents that may be relevant to the search request, said index containing document data associated with a plurality of electronic documents, said document data specifying one or more categories associated with each of the electronic documents;
sorting the results of said querying as a function of the one or more categories associated with the identified electronic documents; and
displaying the sorted results to the user such that one or more of the identified electronic documents in different categories are displayed to the user on a single page.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the document data includes a ranking value associated with each of the electronic documents relative to the one or more categories, said ranking value being stored in the index and indicating a relevance of a particular electronic document to a particular category, and wherein displaying includes displaying a predetermined number of identified electronic documents in each of the different categories as a function of the ranking values.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein displaying includes displaying the sorted results as a function of both a total number of different categories and the ranking value for each of the identified electronic documents in each of the different categories.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein the displaying includes displaying the sorted results in groups, each group corresponding to a particular category, and each group listing a description of the identified electronic documents in the particular category in a descending order based on the ranking value associated with each of the identified electronic documents in the particular category.
5. The method of claim 2 wherein each of the electronic documents comprises one or more of the following: a web page and a multimedia file.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein querying the searchable index further includes querying a third party data source to retrieve advertising data related to the different categories, and wherein displaying the sorted results further includes displaying the retrieved advertising data relative to the different categories of the identified electronic documents.
7. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for generating search results, comprising:
a search form component for receiving a search request from a user;
a search engine component for querying a searchable index as a function of the received search request to identify electronic documents that may be relevant to the search request and for sorting the results of said querying, said index containing document data associated with a plurality of electronic documents, said document data specifying one or more categories associated with each of the electronic documents, said results being sorted as a function of the one or more categories associated with the identified electronic documents; and
a user interface component for displaying the sorted results to the user such that one or more of the identified electronic documents in different categories are displayed to the user on a single page.
8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the document data includes a ranking value associated with each of the electronic documents relative to the one or more categories, said ranking value being stored in the index and indicating a relevance of a particular electronic document to a particular category, and wherein the user interface component is configured to display a predetermined number of identified electronic documents in each of the different categories as a function of the ranking values.
9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the user interface component is further configured to display the sorted results as a function of both a total number of different categories and the ranking value for each of the identified electronic documents in each of the different categories.
10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the user interface component is further configured to display the sorted results in groups, each group corresponding to a particular category, and each group listing a description of the identified electronic documents in the particular category in a descending order based on the ranking value associated with each of the identified electronic documents in the particular category.
11. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the search engine component is further configured to query a third party data source to retrieve advertising data related to the different categories, and wherein the user interface component is further configured to display the retrieved advertising data relative to the different categories of the identified electronic documents.
12. A system for generating search results in response to a search request received from a user, said user generating the search request via a client, said system comprising:
a first server for receiving the search request from the user via the client, said first server being coupled to the client via a communication network;
an index containing document data associated with a plurality of electronic documents, said document data specifying one or more categories associated with each of the electronic documents; and
wherein said first server is configured to query the index as a function of the received search request to identify electronic documents that may be relevant to the search request and to sort the results of said query, said results being sorted as a function of the one or more categories associated with the identified electronic documents for displaying to the user at the client such that one or more of the identified electronic documents in different categories are displayed to the user on a single page.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the document data includes a ranking value associated with each of the electronic documents relative to the one or more categories, said ranking value being stored in the index and indicating a relevance of a particular electronic document to a particular category, and wherein a predetermined number of identified electronic documents in each of the different categories are displayed as a function of the ranking values.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the sorted results are displayed as a function of both a total number of different categories and the ranking value for each of the identified electronic documents in each of the different categories.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the sorted results are displayed in groups, each group corresponding to a particular category, and each group listing a description of the identified electronic documents in the particular category in a descending order based on the ranking value associated with each of the identified electronic documents in the particular category.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first server is configured to provide a web form to the client for receiving the search request from the user.
17. The system of claim 12, wherein the first server is further configured to query a third party data source to retrieve advertising data related to the different categories, and wherein the retrieved advertising data is displayed relative to the different categories of the identified electronic documents.
18. The system of claim 12, wherein the document data included in the index is partitioned and transferred to a plurality of sub-indexes for storage, each of said plurality of sub-indexes being maintained on a plurality of affiliate servers, and wherein the first server is responsive to the received search request to query at least one of the said plurality of sub-indexes to identify one or more electronic documents within different categories.
19. One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon a searchable data structure comprising:
a first field for storing data representing a search engine index term associated with an electronic document located on a network, said index term being included in the electronic document;
a second field for storing data representing a category associated with the electronic document;
a third field for storing data representing a location of the electronic document on the network; and
wherein the document data included in the second field is indexed according to the first field such that one or more categories are associated with the index term, and wherein document data included in the third field is indexed according to the second field such that one or more locations of the electronic documents are associated with each of the one or more categories.
20. The computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the data structure further includes a fourth field representing a ranking value associated with the electronic document, said ranking value indicating a relevance of a particular electronic document to a particular category, and wherein document data included in the fourth field is indexed according to the third field such that one or more ratings are associated with each electronic document the associated with the particular category.
21. The computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein an application is configured to receive a search request to search the index to determine if the index term stored in the first field matches query data specified in the received search request, wherein, if the index term stored in the first field matches the query data, the application is further configured to identify the corresponding category specified in the second field and to identify the corresponding document location stored in the third field, and wherein the application provides search results including identified document locations to the user, and wherein said search results are grouped by category.
22. The computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the data structure further includes a fifth field representing a summary description associated with the known electronic document, and wherein the grouped search results provided to the user by the application include the summary description associated with the electronic document.
23. The computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the document data further includes one or more of the following: data in hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) header, meta tag, extensible markup language (XML) data, and resource description framework (RDF) data.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for evaluating an expression, having a dynamic variable, in program code written a data language, comprising:
receiving the dynamic variable;
determining a first value of the dynamic variable evaluating the expression using the first value;
detecting a change associated with the dynamic variable;
receiving a second value associated with the dynamic variable; and
evaluating the expression using the second value associated with the dynamic variable; wherein the expression is evaluated using the second value without reinterpreting other program code containing the expression.
2. A method for updating a dynamic variable in a data language, comprising:
parsing an instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable;
creating the dynamic variable in memory;
assigning a value for the dynamic variable; and
updating the dynamic variable value without parsing the instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
creating an object associated with the dynamic value, wherein the object determines the value of the dynamic variable.
4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
observing a function value associated with the dynamic variable; and
notifying the object when the function value has changed.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of assigning a value for the dynamic variable, comprises evaluating a function associated with the software platform.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the dynamic variable is contained in a complex equation and further comprising evaluating the complex equation with the updated dynamic variable value.
7. An apparatus for updating a dynamic variable in a data language, comprising:
a memory location assigned to a dynamic variable, wherein the dynamic variable was assigned the memory location in response to parsing an instruction in a data language; and
a processor to evaluate updates to the dynamic variable.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the memory further comprises an object associated with the dynamic variable, wherein the object receives a value representative of the dynamic variable.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the function value is based from a software platform function.
10. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions for updating a dynamic variable written in a data language, that when executed performs the steps comprising:
parsing an instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable;
creating the dynamic variable in memory;
assigning a value for the dynamic variable; and
updating the dynamic variable value without parsing the instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable.
11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer executable instructions for updating a dynamic variable written in a data language, when executed further comprises the steps of:
creating an object associated with the dynamic value, wherein the object determines the value of the dynamic variable.
12. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer executable instructions for updating a dynamic variable written in a data language, when executed further comprises the steps of:
observing a function value associated with the dynamic variable; and
notifying the object when the function value has changed.
13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the step of assigning a value for the dynamic variable, comprises evaluating a function associated with the software platform.
14. An apparatus for updating a dynamic variable in a data language, comprising:
means for parsing an instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable;
means for creating the dynamic variable in memory;
means for assigning a value for the dynamic variable; and
means for updating the dynamic variable value without parsing the instruction written in the data language containing the dynamic variable.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
means for creating an object associated with the dynamic value, wherein the object determines the value of the dynamic variable.
16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
means for observing a function value associated with the dynamic variable; and
means for notifying the object when the function value has changed.