Local Search Using Address Completion
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of determining information about a business, comprising:
- identifying information about the business that is missing from a local information database;
obtaining snippets of text from documents hosted by document hosts and containing information about the business;
analyzing the snippets to determine the missing information about the business; and
storing the determined information in the local information database.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A local search server receives queries for information about businesses from clients. The local search server searches a local information database for information about a business and reports the information about the business to the client that requested it. Sometimes, the database lacks complete information for the business. For example, the database might be missing the street number for the business. The local search server obtains the missing information by interfacing with a search engine and searching for hosted documents about the business. The local search server receives snippets of text from the documents. The local search server applies one or more heuristics to the text snippets to determine the missing information. The missing information is saved in the local information database.
29 Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method of determining information about a business, comprising:
-
identifying information about the business that is missing from a local information database; obtaining snippets of text from documents hosted by document hosts and containing information about the business; analyzing the snippets to determine the missing information about the business; and storing the determined information in the local information database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A system for determining information about a business, comprising:
-
a local search module for interfacing with a local information database and identifying information about the business that is missing from the database; a search engine interface module for obtaining snippets of text from documents hosted by document hosts and containing information about the business; a snippet analysis module for analyzing the snippets to determine the missing information about the business; and a completion module for storing the determined information in the local information database. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A computer program product having a computer-readable storage medium having computer program code embodied therein for determining information about a business, comprising:
-
a local search module for interfacing with a local information database and identifying information about the business that is missing from the database; a search engine interface module for obtaining snippets of text from documents hosted by document hosts and containing information about the business; a snippet analysis module for analyzing the snippets to determine the missing information about the business; and a completion module for storing the determined information in the local information database. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
Specification