System for finding and identifying documents with similar content, especially for use with a web search system, identifies cyclical reference paths formed by links between documents originating from a reference document

摘要

System for finding and identifying documents with similar content that are connected by links, especially hypertext links, with at least an evaluation unit (41) that automatically traces cyclical, i.e. circular closed reference paths formed from links between a number of documents, reference paths originating from the reference document in a rule-based manner. The system then classifies such traced documents with cyclical reference paths as having similar content. An independent claim is made for a method for finding and identifying documents with similar content.