System for providing geographically relevant content to a search query with local intent

• US 20080243821A1
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Demir, Ramazan, Riise, Soren, Patel, Davesh, Delli Santi, Jim W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for utilizing local intent to provide geographically relevant information in response to a search query. The search query results and advertisements may be chosen based at least in part on the local intent and geographic range of the search query. The search query may be assigned a location identifier based on the local intent that is used to expand the geographic range for ranking and selecting relevant content and advertisements.

Claims

1. A method for selecting relevant advertisements in response to a query comprising:

receiving a location and a geographic range associated with a query;

assigning a location identifier for the query location; and

selecting at least one advertisement based on the geographic range for the query location.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one advertisement is a candidate set of advertisements, wherein the candidate set of advertisements includes relevant advertisements that satisfy the geographic range of the query.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating an expansion list of locations based on the location identifier and the geographic range for the query location;

ranking advertisements from the candidate set of advertisements; and

selecting at least one advertisement from the candidate set of advertisements based on the ranking.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the selected at least one advertisement is displayed in response to the query with query results.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the advertisements are ranked based at least in part on a location identifier associated with each advertisement that is compared with the location identifier for the query location.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the expansion list includes a list of location identifiers.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the generating the expansion list comprises expanding the geographic range of the location identifier to include at least one of a parent location, a child location, an adjacent location, or combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisements are each associated with a location identifier that is compared with the location identifier for the query location in the selection of the candidate set of advertisements.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the query is a search performed by a search engine, wherein the query comprises search terms.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is determined based on a local intent of a user performing the query.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the location identifier for the location defines a relationship with at least one of a parent location, a child location, an adjacent location, or combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the geographic range comprises at least one of the parent location, the child location, the adjacent location, or combinations thereof as defined by the location identifier.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is identified based on at least one of an explicit location in the query, an IP address, user information, a root term analysis, or combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the explicit location in the query is a location term that is combined with the root term of the query.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic range is determined based on a local intent value.

16. A method for selecting relevant content comprising:

receiving a search query associated with a location;

calculating a range for the location associated with the search query;

determining a candidate set of available content based on the range for the search query location; and

selecting the relevant content from the candidate set of available content, wherein the candidate set of available content is ranked based on contextual and geographic comparisons with the search query and the search query location.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the search query is associated with the location by a location identifier.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the range for the location is established with the location identifier through at least one of a parent location, a child location, an adjacent location, or combinations thereof.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the geographic comparison comprises ranking the candidate set of available content based on location, wherein the available content within the range for the location is ranked higher.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the relevant content comprises at least one advertisement displayed with search results from the search query.

21. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for displaying geo-relevant advertisements, the storage medium comprising instructions operative to:

receiving a search query;

determining a local intent of the search query;

assigning a location identifier to the search query based on the local intent;

compiling a list of relevant geographies from the location identifier; and

selecting the geo-relevant advertisement from a plurality of available advertisements, wherein the geo-relevant advertisement is associated with at least one of the relevant geographies.

22. The storage medium according to claim 21 wherein the relevant geographies comprise the location identifier and at least one of a parent location, a child location, an adjacent location, or combinations thereof relative to the location identifier.

23. The storage medium according to claim 21 wherein the local intent is determined based on an analysis of past search queries including the same search query.

24. A system ranking relevant content, the system comprising:

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

a local intent analyzer coupled with the search engine and configured to determine a location identifier for the search query;

a geographic database coupled with the local intent analyzer and configured to store a geographic range for the location identifier;

an advertisement provider coupled with the search engine and configured to provide available advertisements to be displayed for the search query; and

a matching engine coupled with the local intent analyzer and the advertisement provider and configured to rank a set of candidate advertisements based on the location identifier and the geographic range for the location identifier.

25. The system according to claim 24 wherein the available advertisements are each associated with a location.