Systems and methods of secure data exchange

Abstract

A method is disclosed comprising providing a federated search facility adapted to search for content on a plurality of disparate computer content storage facilities comprising receiving a computer content search request from a client computing device, wherein the user of the client computing device has access rights to secure computer content on at least one of a first content storage and a second content storage; executing a first computer content search on the first content storage and a second computer content search on the second content storage; receiving a first computer content search result from the first content storage and a second computer content search result from the second content storage; consolidating the first computer content search result and the second computer content search result into a consolidated computer content search result; and providing the consolidated computer content search result to the user as a single computer content search result.

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 providing a federated search facility adapted to search for computer content on a plurality of disparate computer content storage facilities comprising a first content storage and a second content storage, wherein the federated search facility, the first content storage, and the second content storage are interconnected through the Internet;   receiving, by the federated search facility, a computer content search request from a client computing device, wherein the user of the client computing device has access rights to secure computer content on at least one of the first content storage and the second content storage;   executing, by the federated search facility, a first computer content search on the first content storage and a second computer content search on the second content storage, wherein executing the search includes using the access rights of the user on the at least one content storage to which the user has access rights;   receiving a first computer content search result from the first content storage and a second computer content search result from the second content storage;   consolidating the first computer content search result and the second computer content search result into a consolidated computer content search result; and   providing, by the federated search facility, the consolidated computer content search result to the user through a graphical user interface that presents the consolidated computer content as a single computer content search result.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a user authentication identifier required for the user to access computer content on the at least one of the first content storage and the second content storage to which the user has access rights, wherein the federated search facility provides the user authentication identifier to the content storage as part of the executing the content search. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first content storage and the second content storage are managed by different business entities. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first content storage and the second content storage are managed by the same business entity. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first content storage and the second content storage are managed by an intermediate business entity that manages the federated search facility. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first content storage and the second content storage are located at different geographic locations. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of disparate computer content storage facilities are managed by a plurality of business enterprise entities and the federated search facility is managed by an intermediate business entity that provides the federated search facility as a service to the plurality of disparate computer content storage facilities. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computer content search request is a request for at least one computer content document. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computer content search request is received in the form of a request for a search of a text string. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first content storage and the second content storage maintain different local search facilities, wherein the step of executing a first computer content search on the first content storage and a second computer content search on the second content storage comprises a first search request to a first local search facility on the first content storage, and a second local search request to a second local search facility on the second content storage. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of disparate computer content storage facilities comprise a plurality of search engine indexes, including a first search engine index and a second search engine index, for collecting, parsing, and storing computer content to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval, wherein the first content storage maintains the first search engine index and the second content storage maintains the second search engine index. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface is provided by the federated search facility.