LOCATION AWARE SEARCH PAGE ELEMENTS

• US 20110167077A1
• Filed: 01/07/2010
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Muresan, Gheorghe, Govani, Tabreez, Dandekar, Nikhil
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

User locality information can be used to improve various aspects of search results pages. Queries can be suggested based on the user location while excluding common query suggestions that involve an unrelated geographic entity. Deeplinks can also be modified to include location based suggestions. Additionally, results for specialized searches such as travel searches can be improved by employing user locality information.

Claims

1. One or more tangible computer-storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method for providing location aware query suggestions, the method comprising:

receiving a first query;

generating a plurality of query suggestions based on the first query;

detecting a query locality associated with the first query;

constructing one or more additional query suggestions based on the detected locality;

identifying at least one query suggestion, from the plurality of query suggestions, associated with a second locality different from the detected locality; and

displaying the constructed additional query suggestions without displaying the identified query suggestions.

2. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises displaying at least one query suggestion from the plurality of query suggestions without displaying the identified query suggestions.

3. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein the detected locality corresponds to a geographic entity.

4. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein the detected locality corresponds to a latitude and a longitude.

5. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein constructing one or more additional query suggestions comprises:

determining neighbor geographic entities for the detected locality;

constructing a query suggestion corresponding to each neighbor geographic entity based on the first query and the neighbor geographic entity.

6. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 5, wherein determining neighbor geographic entities comprises retrieving the neighbor geographic entities from a lookup table.

7. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 5, wherein identifying the at least one query suggestion corresponding to a remote locality comprises:

detecting a query term corresponding to a geographic entity in at least one query suggestion; and

comparing the detected query term with neighbor geographic entities for locality associated with the first query.

8. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein constructing one or more additional query suggestions comprises constructing a query suggestion based on the first query and the query locality.

9. The one or more tangible computer-storage media of claim 1, wherein each query suggestion associated with a different locality is not associated with a neighbor of the query locality.

10. A method of displaying deeplinks associated with a search result, comprising:

receiving a first query;

detecting a query locality associated with the first query;

determining at least one site matching the first query, the site having a first domain;

constructing at least one related query based on the detected locality;

identifying one or more sites matching the at least one related query;

selecting identified sites that correspond to the first domain; and

displaying the site having the first domain and at least one of the selected identified sites.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising ranking the selected identified sites, wherein selected identified sites are displayed based on the ranking.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein constructing at least one related query comprises

determining neighbor geographic entities for the detected locality;

constructing a related query for each neighbor geographic entity based on the query and the neighbor geographic entity.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining neighbor geographic entities comprises retrieving the neighbor geographic entities from a lookup table.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising displaying at least one additional site that corresponds to the first domain, the at least one additional site being different from the selected identified sites.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a plurality of additional sites corresponding to the first domain;

detecting a geographic entity associated with each additional site;

identifying one or more detected geographic entities that do not correspond to the query locality or a neighbor of the query locality; and

displaying at least one of the plurality of additional sites without displaying the additional sites associated with the identified geographic entities.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the detected locality corresponds to a latitude and longitude.

17. A method for performing a locality based travel search, comprising:

receiving a first query, the first query including a first location and having a query format;

matching the query format to a travel format;

detecting a query locality associated with the first query;

selecting a travel hub corresponding to the query locality;

constructing a travel query including the first location and the travel hub; and

displaying at least one document link responsive to the travel query.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the travel hub is an airport, a train station, or a bus depot.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein selecting a travel hub comprises identifying a travel hub corresponding to the query locality.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein selecting a travel hub comprises:

identifying one or more travel hubs corresponding to a neighbor of the query locality;

calculating a distance from the travel hub to the query locality;

selecting the travel hub based on the distance.