The present invention pertains to the field of computer software. More specifically,
the present invention relates to populating, indexing, and searching a database
of fine-grained web objects or object specifications. An embodiment of the invention
is directed to a method of searching resources on the web. A query is received
to search for information on the web and one or more web pages and one or more
subsets of one or more web pages are accessed. The subsets have been extracted
from one or more web pages prior to receiving the query. The subsets are extracted
responsive to one or more views. The one or more views are defined independently
of the search query. The views are content-sensitive filters that specify which
subparts of a web page a user is interested in. Prior to receiving the search query,
the subsets are stored in a database. Responsive to the search query, at least
one or more of the extracted subsets of one or more web pages stored in the database
is identified. The search query is used as a criterion for identifying at least
one or more of the subsets.
