[squirejons]

Wow! As a patent agent, those patents are pure MONEY patents, incredibly broad, especially to have been published in 2001 (but with a priority date of 1996) Here is the money claim:

A search engine system comprising: a first system for receiving informons from a network on a continuing search basis, for filtering such informons for relevancy to a query from an individual user, and for storing a ranked list of relevant informons as a wire; a second system for receiving informons from a network on a current demand search basis and for filtering such informons for relevancy to the query from the individual user; and a third system for selecting at least one of the first and second systems to make a search for the query and to return the wire or demand search results to the individual user. ==========

here is the money claim for the other patent:

. A search system comprising: a scanning system for searching for information relevant to a query associated with a first user in a plurality of users; a feedback system for receiving information found to be relevant to the query by other users; and a content-based filter system for combining the information from the feedback system with the information from the scanning system and for filtering the combined information for relevance to at least one of the query and the first user.

man, that second one is a pretty broad patent.