Indexing documents according to geographical relevance
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for indexing a document comprising:
- determining a location associated with the document;
determining a plurality of locations surrounding the location associated with the document; and
indexing the document to include a reference to the location and the plurality of locations surrounding the location.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A local search engine efficiently indexes documents relevant to a geographical area by indexing, for each document, multiple location identifiers that collectively define an aggregate geographic region. When creating the index, the search engine may determine a set of geographical areas surrounding a geographical area relevant to a document and associate references to the set of geographical areas with the document index.
102 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for indexing a document comprising:
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determining a location associated with the document;
determining a plurality of locations surrounding the location associated with the document; and
indexing the document to include a reference to the location and the plurality of locations surrounding the location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A search engine comprising:
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means for storing a document index;
means for determining a location associated with a document;
means for determining a plurality of locations surrounding the location associated with the document; and
means for indexing the document to include a reference to the location and the plurality of locations in the document index.
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9. A method for indexing a document comprising:
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identifying a document having relevance to a first geographical area;
determining a set of geographical areas surrounding the first geographical area; and
associating references to the first geographical area and the set of geographical areas with the document; and
indexing the document with the associated references. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer-readable medium containing programming instructions for execution by a processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:
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programming instructions for identifying a document having relevance to a first geographical area;
programming instructions for determining a set of geographical areas surrounding the first geographical area; and
programming instructions for associating references to the first geographical area and the set of geographical areas with an index that includes terms from the document.
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18. A method of performing a search comprising:
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receiving a search query associated with a geographic region;
determining a location identifier associated with the geographic region; and
performing a search for documents relevant to the search query based on a comparison of the search query and the location identifier to a document index. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A search system comprising:
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a search engine to;
receive a search query that includes search terms and an indication of a desired geographical region;
determine a location identifier associated with the desired geographic region;
modify the search query by appending the location identifier to the search query; and
perform a search for documents relevant to the search query based on a comparison of the modified search query to a document index that associates a plurality of location identifiers to each geographically relevant document in the index. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification