Pervasive search architecture

Abstract

A pervasive search architecture that indexes personal content of a querying user and made accessible to the user by other users. A compute node of a personal content location facilitates index generation and serve of the index. The index is generated for personal content stored at the personal content location. For a given content location, the index may encapsulate content stored in a set of locations with access permissions. The indexing application runs periodically at the personal content location and incrementally indexes content that is added to the shared locations. The same application allows the user to configure locations with the desired access permissions for participation in the search.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system, comprising:
 an indexer component of a compute node associated with personal content of a personal content location of a content owner, the indexer component configured to generate a content index of the personal content of the personal content location;   a serve component of the compute node, the serve component configured to send a query to a remote compute node associated with remote shared personal content of a remote personal content location, the remote personal content location configured to process the query based on a remote content index generated by the remote compute node, the serve component configured to receive remote results of the remote personal shared content from the remote compute node; and   at least one microprocessor configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in a memory associated with the indexer component and the serve component.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote shared personal content is personal content of a remote shared content owner, the personal content of the content owner held private from a public user and the remote shared personal content of the remote shared content owner is enabled to be accessed by the compute node of the content owner. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the content index is distributed at one or more other personal content locations. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the content index is generated and updated in realtime at the personal content location of the content owner. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote content index is made publicly-accessible to a public user based on access criteria, the remote shared personal content accessed by the public user based on criteria of at least one of proximity of the public user issuing the query to the remote personal content location, degree of separation between the remote personal content location and the public user, quality measure and relevance of the remote shared personal content, or confidence measure of a remote shared content owner of the remote shared personal content. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote personal content location comprises a sensor system configured to generate realtime sensor data that is indexed in realtime to create a realtime sensor index as the remote content index, the sensor system comprises the remote compute node configure to, in part, serve the realtime sensor index for search using the query to return the remote results to the compute node. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote compute node comprises a remote indexer component and a remote serve component, the remote indexer component configured to generate the remote content index and the remote serve component is configure to serve the remote content index to a search engine to generate the remote results based on the query, the remote serve component configured to receive the remote results from the search engine and return the remote results to the serve component of the compute node. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the serve component is configured to serve the content index for processing of the query at the personal content location, and personal content of the content owner and remote shared personal content of the remote personal content location are presented with web search results at the personal content location. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the compute node is configured to forward the query to other compute nodes of other personal content locations and, as well as aggregate and rank retrieved other content results from the other compute nodes with personal content results of the personal content location. 
     
     
         10 . A method, comprising acts of:
 generating a content index of personal content of a personal content location of a content owner and a remote index of remote personal content on a remote personal content location of a remote content owner;   serving the content index and the remote index for processing of a query issued by the content owner; and   returning search results of relevant personal content from the personal content location and relevant shared personal content from the remote personal content location based on processing of the query on the content index and the remote index.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising processing the query against the content index and the remote index, and against a web index, and returning web results along with the relevant personal content and the relevant shared personal content for presentation to the content owner. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising processing the query at the personal content location of the content owner as against the content index, and processing the query on the remote personal content location of the remote content owner as against the remote index. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising merging the content index and the remote content index to create a merged index, and storing the merged index in a network storage location for access and processing by a search engine to return relevant personal content and relevant shared personal content as search results. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising forwarding the query from the remote personal content location to another remote personal content location, processing the query against another remote index of the another remote personal content location, and returning relevant personal content from the another remote personal content location to the remote personal content location. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising cloning the content index and remote index at one or more other personal content locations. 
     
     
         16 . A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a microprocessor, cause the microprocessor to perform acts of:
 generating a content index of personal content at a personal content location of a content owner;   receiving authorized access to shared personal content of a remote personal content location of a shared content owner, the shared personal content indexed according to a shared content index;   processing a query issued by the content owner against the content index and the shared content index;   receiving relevant personal content results of the personal content location and relevant shared personal content results from the remote personal content location based on processing of the query;   ranking the relevant personal content results and relevant shared personal content results based on user preferences and personal content relevance; and   presenting the ranked personal content results and ranked relevant shared personal content results with web-based results to the content owner.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further comprising receiving the relevant shared personal content results from the remote personal content location based on at least one of proximity of the personal content location to the remote personal content location, quality measure of the relevant shared personal content of the remote personal content location, relevance of the shared personal content of the remote personal content location or confidence measure of the shared content owner. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further comprising indexing realtime data of the remote personal content location and serving the realtime data index to the query. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further comprising distributing and caching the content index and the shared personal content index among multiple personal content locations. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further comprising sending the query from the personal content location directly to the remote personal content location and other accessible remote personal content locations, processing the query at each of the remote personal content location and the other accessible remote personal content locations, and receiving back at the personal content location relevant content results from any one or more of the remote personal content location and the other accessible remote personal content locations.