System for determining the geographic range of local intent in a search query

• US 20080243783A1
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Demir, Ramazan, Santi, Jim W. Delli
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,450 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for determining the geographic range of a search query. A search query may include local intent which influences the results and advertisements that are displayed in response to the search query. The geographic range associated with the local intent may vary depending on the search query. The geographic range may be determined using probabilistic models that analyze historical searches to determine the geographic range of search queries.

Claims

1. A method for determining a geographic range for a query comprising:

receiving the query, the query including a root term;

analyzing a query history of the root term; and

determining the geographic range based on a plurality of frequencies by which the root term is associated with a plurality of location bands in the query history of the root term, wherein one of the plurality of frequencies of the root term is associated with one of the plurality of location bands.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the query comprises the root term and a location term.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the geographic range further comprises:

assigning a value for each of the plurality of location bands, wherein the respective values represent a geographic range;

multiplying the one of the plurality of frequencies with the value of the associated location band; and

combining the multiplied values for the root term to form a local intent value, wherein the local intent value determines the geographic range.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the analysis of the query history of the root term further comprises:

determining in the query history when the root term is associated with a location term; and

assigning each location term that is associated with the root term to one of the plurality of location bands.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of location bands comprises five location bands each covering a different geographic range.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the geographic ranges of the five location bands includes a country, state, large city, small city, zip code, neighborhood, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of location bands are associated with a value that is multiplied by the associated frequency of the plurality of frequencies.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the query history of the root term comprises a database of past queries for the root term.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the database further comprises at least one location term for the root term when the past queries included a root term and a location term.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the query comprises receiving the query entered into a search engine by a user, wherein the user expects to receive a response to the query.

11. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for determining the localness of a root term, the storage medium comprising instructions operative to:

receiving a plurality of search queries;

separating a root term and a location term from each of the plurality of queries;

categorizing the location terms into location bands;

computing the frequency in each of the location bands for the root terms from the plurality of queries; and

calculating a localness value for the root terms based on a frequency it is associated with each of the location bands.

12. The storage medium of claim 11 wherein calculating a localness value comprises instructions operative to:

assigning a value for each of the location bands, wherein the values represent a geographic range;

multiplying the frequency in each of the location bands with the value of the location band associated with that frequency; and

combining the multiplied values for the root term to form a local intent value, wherein the local intent value determines the geographic range.

13. The storage medium of claim 11 wherein each of the plurality of search queries comprises the root term and/or the location term.

14. The storage medium of claim 11 wherein the localness value represents a geographic range for a search query.

15. The storage medium of claim 14 wherein the geographic ranges of the five location bands includes a country, state, large city, small city, zip code, neighborhood, or combinations thereof.

16. A system determining a geographic range of a search query comprising:

a search engine coupled with a network and configured to receive the search query over the network;

a root extractor coupled with the search engine and configured to extract a root term from the search query;

a localness calculator coupled with the search engine and configured to determine a geographic range of the search query; and

a root term database coupled with the localness calculator and configured to store root terms extracted from a plurality of search queries combined with at least one location associated with the root terms;

wherein the localness calculator determines the geographic range of the root term from the root term database based on the at least one locations associated with the root term.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising a location tagger coupled with the localness calculator and configured to assign a value to each of the at least one locations, wherein the value is representative of the geographic range, further wherein the localness calculator determines the geographic range based on the at least one locations associated with the root term from the search query.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

a content provider coupled with the search engine and configured to provide content in response to the search query; and

a matching engine coupled with the content provider and configured to compare the search query with the content available from the content provider.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the content provider comprises an advertisement provider, further wherein the content provided is at least one advertisement.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the at least one advertisement is geographically relevant based on the determined geographic range.

21. The system of claim 18 further comprising a user device coupled with the network and configured to receive the provided content over the network in response to submitting the search query.

22. The system of claim 16 wherein the geographic range is expressed as a local intent value.

23. The system of claim 16 further comprising at least one of an internal data source or an external data source coupled with the root term database and configured to provide the plurality of search queries.