METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A LOCATION BASED SEARCH
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving a search request for one or more listings within an area of interest defined in relation to a point of interest;
identifying a number of geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest, each region having an associated identifier;
searching, when the number of identified regions is greater than a threshold, for each listing of a plurality of listings having a geographical code sharing at least a prefix of an identifier of at least one of the identified regions; and
searching, when the number of identified regions is less than or equal to the threshold, for each listing of the plurality of listings having a geographical code equal to the identifier of at least one of the identified regions.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for providing location based searches and other services are provided. Embodiments may include dividing a searchable region into quad regions and populating the search regions with a plurality of listings. The division of quad regions may be dependent on a maximum number of listings per quad region and a minimum size for any one quad region. Embodiments may include assigning unique identifiers to each quad regions and assigning the unique identifiers to each of the listings according to the quad region in which the listings are located as geographical codes. The geographical codes may be used as part a location based search. In some of the embodiments, the listings may be searched by prefixes of the geographical codes rather than the entire geographical codes.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving a search request for one or more listings within an area of interest defined in relation to a point of interest; identifying a number of geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest, each region having an associated identifier; searching, when the number of identified regions is greater than a threshold, for each listing of a plurality of listings having a geographical code sharing at least a prefix of an identifier of at least one of the identified regions; and searching, when the number of identified regions is less than or equal to the threshold, for each listing of the plurality of listings having a geographical code equal to the identifier of at least one of the identified regions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:
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a first executable portion configured to receive a search request for one or more listings within an area of interested defined by a distance to a point of interest; a second executable portion configured to determine a number and an identity of one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest; and a third executable portion configured to either (i) search for each listing of a plurality of listings having a geographical code sharing at least a prefix of the identifier of at least one of the one or more geographical regions that has at least a partial overlap with the area of interest when the number of the one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest is greater than a threshold number, or (ii) search for each listing of the plurality of listings having a geographical code equal to the identifier of at least one of the one or more geographical regions that has at least a partial overlap with the area of interest when the number of the one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest is less than or equal to the threshold number. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to receive a search request for one or more listings within an area of interested defined by a distance to a point of interest;
configured to determine a number and an identity of one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest; and
configured to either (i) search for each listing of a plurality of listings having a geographical code sharing at least a prefix of the identifier of at least one of the one or more geographical regions that has at least a partial overlap with the area of interest when the number of the one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest is greater than a threshold number, or (ii) search for each listing of the plurality of listings having a geographical code equal to the identifier of at least one of the one or more geographical regions that has at least a partial overlap with the area of interest when the number of the one or more geographical regions that have at least a partial overlap with the area of interest is less than or equal to the threshold number.- View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
Specification