Hosted LAN Search via Metadata Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional search engines are limited in their ability to efficiently collect and organize information from private local area networks (LANs), as they typically copy entire documents and index them by metadata, rather than focusing on specific items of interest, and are restricted to searching within a single user's computer, failing to discover and incorporate information from other devices.
Innovation Solution
A hosted on-demand search system that employs a LAN crawler to automatically collect descriptive information from multiple devices across a private LAN, organizing it by items of interest and reporting this information to centralized servers, which create and synchronize private search databases, allowing users to perform searches across multiple LANs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional search engines copy entire documents and index by metadata, then complete document information is collected, but processing time and storage requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the specific items of interest from documents rather than copying entire documents. The system identifies and collects only relevant metadata fields (such as author, title, keywords, publication date) that correspond to user search criteria, eliminating the need to process and store complete document content while maintaining search effectiveness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified copies of document information in the form of structured metadata records rather than full document copies. These metadata copies contain only the essential searchable attributes, reducing storage requirements and processing time while preserving the ability to perform effective searches across large document collections
2Ease of operation
If search engines organize information by documents, then document-level searching is enabled, but searching for specific items across multiple documents becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments document information into discrete, searchable metadata fields (author, title, keywords, date, etc.) that can be independently queried. This segmentation allows users to search for specific items across multiple documents by targeting individual metadata fields rather than searching through entire documents, significantly improving search efficiency for specific information types
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new organizational dimension by indexing information according to metadata fields and items of interest rather than solely by document structure. This creates a field-based search space that enables efficient querying across documents based on specific attributes, adding a dimensional layer to the search organization that complements traditional document-level indexing
3Speed
If desktop search tools search only local computer files, then fast local searching is achieved, but information from other devices and networks remains inaccessible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a search system that functions across multiple platforms and devices simultaneously. The centralized server architecture enables the same search engine to index and search documents from local computers, networked devices, and remote locations through a unified interface, making the search tool universally applicable across diverse information sources while maintaining fast search performance through pre-indexed metadata
4Loss of information
If search engines process entire collected documents, then comprehensive metadata extraction is possible, but resource consumption and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary extraction of metadata during the document collection phase, identifying and isolating key information fields before full document processing occurs. This preliminary action creates a ready-to-search metadata structure that reduces the complexity of subsequent search operations, as the system only needs to query pre-extracted metadata rather than processing entire documents during search operations
Data Source
AI summary
Hosted searching of different local area network (LAN) information is described. The apparatus for hosted searching of different private LAN information includes a LAN crawler to automatically and repeatedly crawl a LAN having multiple devices, and a hosted on-demand search system including a set of one or more centralized-search servers to create and synchronize a separate private search database for each of the private LANs based on received reports from of different instances of the LAN crawler deployed on the multiple private LANs, at least some of which are operated by different entities.