Patent US 6,460,047

A technique for indexing data is provided. A method for compressing an index to obtain a compressed index that is easily stored and transmitted is provided. The invention also provides for the decompression of such a compressed index. One embodiment of the invention maintains a separate index for each document, thereby allowing easy updating of indexes in response to changes in documents and easy transmission of indexes, which allows distributed searching. The technique provides very compact indexing information, but allows the indexing information to be very rapidly processed.