Maping physical locations to web sites

• US 20020199018A1
• Filed: 06/21/2001
• Published: 12/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Majd, Mahdad, Santosuosso, John Matthew, Diedrich, Richard Alan
• Application Number:
  US09/886,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20020199018A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for searching network information by geographic region. A geographic region may be defined as the metes and bounds of a plot of land, a location identified by a physical address, a particular structure, a global positioning system (GPS) address, etc. In each case, a geographic region is associated with a network address, such as a uniform resource locator (URL). The association between the network address and the region may be embodied in a data structure. An application then uses the data structure to resolve a query containing geographic location information indicating a current position of a requesting device.

Claims

1. A method of locating network addresses according to geographic information, comprising:

receiving a query for a network address associated with a geographic region, wherein the query contains geographic location information indicating a current position of requesting device;

parsing the query; and

locating, in a network address locator data structure, geographic region information defining the geographic region and satisfying the query according to the geographic location information; and

returning at least the network address associated with the geographic region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein locating comprises matching the geographic region information to geographic location information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein matching comprises determining that at least one point defined by the geographic location information is contained within the geographic region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address locator data structure is a searchable index compiled by at least one spider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein locating comprising accessing user-defined region information containing at least one region defined by a user issuing the query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address locator data structure comprises a plurality of network address entries and associated geographic region entries.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location information comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise a longitudinal coordinate, a latitudinal coordinate and an altitudinal coordinate.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise at least three points.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the query contains search information indicating to a search tool a geographic region search mode.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the query contains search information indicating to a search tool a geographic location search mode and wherein locating the geographic region comprises accessing a geographic region entry of the network address locator data structure.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein searching for the network addresses comprises processing metatag information retrieved from geographic location metatags contained in Web pages, wherein the geographic location metatags comprise a geographic location name attribute and an associated content attribute containing the geographic region information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the geographic location metatags contain geographic region information for a plurality of regions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the query contains search information indicating to a search tool a geographic region search mode.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the network address locator data structure is a searchable index compiled by at least one spider.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein locating comprising accessing user-defined region information containing at least one region defined by a user issuing the query.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the network address locator data structure comprises a plurality of network address entries and associated geographic region entries.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the geographic location information comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise a longitudinal coordinate, a latitudinal coordinate and an altitudinal coordinate.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise at least three points.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein locating comprises matching the geographic region information to geographic location information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein matching comprises determining that at least one point defined by the geographic location information is contained within the geographic region.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the query contains search information indicating to a search tool a geographic region search mode.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the query is configured to instruct a search tool to access user-defined geographic region information.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein discarding comprises accessing user-preference information to eliminate the at least one of the at least two network addresses.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein displaying comprises displaying only the network address associated with a geographic region.

30. The server computer system of claim 29, wherein the geographic region information comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates specifying the regions.

31. The server computer system of claim 29, wherein the network address locator data structure is a searchable index compiled by at least one spider.

32. The server computer system of claim 29, wherein the geographic location information and the geographic region information comprise global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

33. The server computer system of claim 32, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise a longitudinal coordinate, a latitudinal coordinate and an altitudinal coordinate.

35. The data structure of claim 34, wherein the data structure is a searchable index compiled by at least one spider.

36. The data structure of claim 34, wherein the at least one region comprises a plurality of regions.

37. The data structure of claim 34, wherein the at least one network address is a uniform resource locator.

38. The data structure of claim 34, wherein the geographic region information comprises GPS coordinates.

39. The data structure of claim 38, wherein the GPS coordinates comprise a longitudinal coordinate, a latitudinal coordinate and an altitudinal coordinate.

14. A method of locating network addresses according to geographic information, comprising:

receiving a query for a network address associated with a geographic region, wherein the query contains geographic location information indicating a current position of requesting device;

parsing the query; and

locating, in a network address locator data structure, geographic region information defining the geographic region and satisfying the query according to the geographic location information; and

returning at least the network address associated with the geographic region.

24. A method of locating network addresses using geographic location information specifying a current location of a requesting device, comprising:

transmitting a query for a network address associated with a geographic region, wherein the query contains the geographic location information;

receiving a response containing at least two network addresses;

discarding at least one of the at least two network addresses; and

displaying remaining network addresses of the at least two network addresses, wherein the remaining network addresses include the network address associated with a geographic region.

29. A server computer system, comprising:

a storage area containing a network address locator data structure comprising metatags associated with network addresses;

wherein the metatags contain geographic region information defining regions; and

an application configured to search the network address locator data structure for a network address associated with a region in response to receiving a query containing geographic location information indicative of a current location of a requesting device.

34. A data structure stored on a signal bearing medium and accessible by an application to resolve a query containing geographic information indicative of a requesting device'"'"'s current position, the data structure comprising metatags associated with network addresses;

wherein each metatag contains geographic region information defining at least one region associated with at least one network address.