Apparatus, method, and computer program for providing user reviews

• US 10,104,024 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2016
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Naver Corporation
• Original Assignee: Naver Corporation
• Inventors: Hong, Jina, Jung, Sun Hwa, Kim, U Jae
• Primary Examiner(s): Mirza, Adnan
• Application Number:
  US15/151,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20160337275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method, performed by a user review providing system, of providing user reviews includes acquiring, from a first user terminal, location information specifying an area on a map, and providing review posts to the first user terminal by classifying the review posts according to points-of-interest (POIs), the review posts being written by a plurality of users to include information about a POI included in an area specified by the location information and posted on a personal webpage of a writer.

Claims

1. A method, performed by a server computer, of providing user reviews of at least one point-of-interest (POI) located on a map to a user terminal through a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first user terminal, location information specifying an area on the map to obtain user reviews of POIs located in the specified area on the map; and

classifying a plurality of review posts relating to the POIs located in the area on the map specified by the location information, the review posts being written by a plurality of users to include information about a the POIs included in the area on the map specified by the location information and posted on a personal webpage of the plurality of users; and

providing the classified review posts to the first user terminal;

wherein before the receiving of the location information from the first user terminal, the method further comprises,

receiving, from a second user terminal, a selection of any one of POIs stored in a map database (DB), providing the second user terminal with information about the selected POI, and receiving, from the second user terminal, identification information of a review post including the information about the selected POI and posted on a personal webpage of a second user; and

storing the identification information of the review post in the map DB, linked with the selected POI,

wherein, in the providing of the review posts to the first user terminal, the review posts correspond to review post identification information stored in the map DB linked with the POIs included in the area specified by the location information and posted on the personal webpage of the users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the review posts comprises any one piece of corresponding POI information set by a user that wrote the review post, among the plurality of POIs stored in the map DB.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the POI information is a map indicating a location of a corresponding POI on the map.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the providing of the review posts to the first user terminal, the plurality of POIs included in the specified area on the map are listed according to a preset standard, and a webpage in which review posts including each of the plurality of POIs are listed under each POI, is provided to the first user terminal.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of POIs are listed in a first direction, and a review post including information about each of the plurality of POIs is listed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the preset standard is that a POI is listed higher as the number of users writing review posts including information of the POI increases.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the POIs included in the specified area of the map are included among the POIs stored in the map DB.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises a current location and a range of an area of coverage of the first user terminal, and the range is set to be a radius set by the first user terminal or a default radius.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the providing of the review posts to the first user terminal, the number of POIs selected are as many as a preset number in an order of a largest number of review posts or a largest number of users writing review posts, among the POIs stored in the map DB and included in the area on the map, and review posts written to include information about any one of the selected POIs are classified according to each P01 and the classified review posts are provided to the first user terminal.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a program, which when executed by a computer, performs the method defined in claim 1.

10. An apparatus for providing user reviews of at least one point-of-interest (POI) located on a map to a user terminal through a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

a review writing manager receiving, from a second user terminal in communication with the review writing manager, a selection of any one of points-of-interest (POIs) stored in a map database (DB), providing the second user terminal with information about a selected POI, receiving, from the second user terminal, identification information of a review post including the information about the selected POI and posted on a personal webpage of a second user, and storing the identification information of the review post in the map DB, linked with the selected POI; and

a review provider receiving, from a first user terminal in communication with the review provider, location information specifying an area on the map to obtain user reviews of POIs located in the specified area on the map, classifying a plurality of review posts relating to the POIs located in the area on the map specified by the location information, the review posts corresponding to review post identification information stored in the map DB and linked with the POIs included in the area specified by the location information, and providing the classified review posts to the first user terminal.