System and method for embedded information retrieval in a distributed free-text application environment

Claim 1

An embedded distributed information retrieval system, comprising: an embedding module for embedding a distributed information retrieval system in a computer application program, the embedding module being operative to enable a user to select at least one information source and at least one knowledge base; a free-text parser coupled to the application program, the free-text parser operative to receive scheduled reads of textual information from the application program, parse the textual information into sentences, and rank the sentences on the basis of words and phrases in the sentences; a query engine coupled to receive the ranked sentences, and operative to generate structured queries, the query engine coupled to the at least one knowledge base and including a semantic network processor program; a metasearch engine coupled to receive and submit the structured queries to the at least one information source; and a retrieval manager coupled to the metasearch engine, the retrieval manager operative to receive retrieved links associated with the structured queries, and to rank and filter the retrieved links based upon predefined criteria.