Avoiding masked web page content indexing errors for search engines

Abstract

Multiple non-host client sites provide cached user copies of web pages and/or web content, or summaries thereof, to a server. Obtaining data from non-host sources for indexing purposes avoids masked web page content indexing errors for search engines. The server aggregates, summarizes and indexes the web pages and/or web content in an index of cached content, in conjunction with updating, generating and storing a search index using an indexing agent such as a web crawler or spider. In response to receiving search requests from end users, the search engine uses comparisons between the index of cached content and the index of crawled content to identify potential page masking errors for specific search results and appropriately rank or omit results with a high risk of masking errors in a search result list.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for measuring the popularity of a web page, the system comprising:
 a server configured to receive cached copies of the web page and count the cached copies received;   a popularity indicator, wherein the popularity indicator is adjusted by the server based on a number of cached copies received.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the cached copies are received from an application operating on a client computer. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the application is configured to periodically transmit the cached copies to the server. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein each cached copy is summarized by the application prior to transmitting the cached copies to the server. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the server receives the cached copies from a private cache that stores user copies of web pages. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the user copies of web pages are obtained from one or more hosts of the web pages. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the user copies of web pages are obtained from one or more sources not affiliated with hosts of the web pages. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the cached copies are indexed in a search engine database. 
     
     
         9 . A method for measuring the popularity of a web page, the method comprising:
 receiving cached copies of the web page at a server;   counting the cached copies received;   adjusting a popularity indicator based on a number of cached copies received.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising transmitting the cached copies to an indexing server for indexing in a search engine database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the cached copies are received from an application operating on a client computer. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the application is configured to periodically transmit the cached copies to the server. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising prompting non-host clients to download an application that periodically sends cached user copies of web pages or summaries of cached user copies of web pages for indexing in a search engine database. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the cached copies are indexed by an indexing server in a search engine database. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the server receives the cached copies from a private cache that stores user copies of web pages. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the user copies of web pages are obtained from sources not affiliated with hosts of the web pages. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the user copies of web pages are obtained from hosts of the web pages. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising obtaining data parameters for a search index from the hosts of the web pages. 
     
     
         19 . A system for measuring the popularity of a web page, the system comprising:
 a server configured to receive and count cached copies of the web page, wherein each of the cached copies are summarized by an application operating on a client's computer prior to being received by the server;   a popularity indicator, wherein the popularity indicator is adjusted by the server based on a number of cached copies received.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the application periodically transmits the cached copies to the server.