Web browser accessible search engine with statistics gathering persistence

Abstract

A search engine server interacts with a client devices and web servers to enhance the quality of search service based on statistics that are gathered by the system. The search engine server monitors the quality of service and data format (i.e. encoding needed for secured delivery) of search results or searched web pages delivered from the web servers. On the client side, the system generates page content usefulness statistics by monitoring user interaction with search results or web pages on the client device. Each of the visited web pages/links is associated with a vectoring event, and a vector event table is constructed using these vectoring events from all the visited web pages or search results. The vectoring event table from several search sessions are retrieved periodically, and used to compute/evaluate statistics for each of the web servers that host web pages.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for searching of web content comprising:
 receiving a search string via a communication interface from a client device;   performing a search operation using the search string;   outputting search operation information via the communications interface intended for presentation to a user of the client device;   gathering page usefulness statistics from the client device via the communication interface, the page usefulness statistics being useful in determining what additional search results are of interest to the user;   merging the page usefulness statistics with session statistics;   appending the session statistics into a webpage vector event table configured to store session statistics for many different search operations involving many different users over a period of time; and   executing a vector event manager configured to compile the session statistics gathered in the vector event table, to use the session statistics for many different search operations involving many different users over a period of time to evaluate search performance to improve the quality of search results provided to users in response to search operations.