Dynamic Selection of Point-Of-Interest Search Services

• US 20120136849A1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: NIRANJAN, Karthigesu, BÀRBARIE, Stéphane Luc
• Application Number:
  US12/955,337
• Publication Number:
  US 20120136849A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A method and a system for point-of-interest search is disclosed. A search request including a location information acquired by a mobile device at a location defined by the location information is received at a server. A search query is formulated using the search request and the location information. The search query is sent to a plurality of search engines and search results are received from the plurality of search engines and aggregated based on the search context.

Claims

1. A method for point-of-interest search comprising:

receiving a search request at a mobile device;

formulating a search query using the search request and a location information;

sending the search query to a search resource selector;

receiving search results; and

displaying the search results.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the search resource selector sends the search query to a plurality of search engines.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the search resource selector resides in a server, further comprising sending the search query to a plurality of search engines.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the location information is included in a search context.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising aggregating the search results based on the search context.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the search context includes a user selection.

7. The method according to claim 5, further comprising providing aggregated results to the mobile device.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the search request is input by a user input.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising defining a subset of search engines.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the subset of search engines is defined by a carrier.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising defining a subset of categories.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the search request originates from a client application running on the mobile device.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the location information is cached location data.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server complements the search context.

15. A search aggregation server for point-of-interest search comprising:

a location based request receiver receiving a search request, the search request including a location information acquired by a mobile device at a location defined by the location information;

a search resource selector formulating a search query using the search request and the location information;

a search resource provider sending the search query to a plurality of search engines;

a search result interface receiving search results from the plurality of search engines; and

a search result aggregator aggregating the search results based on the search context.

16. The search aggregation server according to claim 15, further comprising an aggregated result provider providing aggregated results to the mobile device.

17. The search aggregation server according to claim 15, further comprising a synchronizer for ensuring search engines and categories currently supported by the server are present at the mobile device.

18. The search aggregation server according to claim 15, wherein the search request is received from a carrier, wherein the carrier configures a subset of the plurality of search engines.

19. The search aggregation server according to claim 15, wherein the search context includes a user selection.

20. A mobile device for point-of-interest search comprising:

a client application accepting a user input and originating a search request, the search request including a location information acquired by a mobile device at a location defined by the location information; and

a transceiver receiving aggregated search results;

wherein the server formulates a search query using the search request and the location information and sends the search query to a plurality of search engines, receives search results from the plurality of search engines; and

aggregates the search results.