METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRE-FETCHING PLACE PAGE DATA FOR SUBSEQUENT DISPLAY ON A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20130151645A1
• Filed: 12/08/2011
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Siliski, Michael, Sasaki, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,305,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/13 Prefetching
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/32 Image data format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system for pre-fetching place page data from a remote mapping system for display on a client computing device is disclosed. User preference data collected from various data sources including applications executing on the client device, online or local user profiles, and other sources may be analyzed to generate a request for place page data from the remote mapping system. The user preference data may indicate a map feature such as a place of business, park, or historic landmark having the characteristics of both a user'"'"'s preferred geographic location and the user'"'"'s personal interests. For example, where the user indicates a geographic preference for “Boston” and a personal interest for “home brewing” the system and method may request place page data for all home brewing or craft beer-related map features near Boston.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for pre-fetching place page data to a mapping application executing on a client computing device from a remote mapping system for subsequent display on the client computing device, the method comprising:

analyzing user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data to determine user preference data, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes data indicating a particular map location that is preferred by a user of the client computing device and user personal interest data includes data indicating personal interests of the user;

matching the user preference data with place page data of the remote mapping system, wherein the place page data includes one or more of text, graphics, and data feed data describing a map feature corresponding to both a particular map location that is preferred by the user and a personal interest of the user;

sending the matched place page data from the remote mapping system to the client computing device;

storing the matched place page data in a cache memory of the client computing device; and

subsequently retrieving the matched place page data from the cache memory of the client computing device without further communication between the remote mapping system and the client computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the user preferred geographic location data from a mapping application of the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes one or more of a city name, an address, an airport code, or global positioning system coordinates.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user preferred geographic location data is indicated by one or more of a GPS position that was flagged using the mapping application, a geographic location returned to the client computing device by the remote mapping system, and a geographic location having an indicated preference.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the user personal interests data from one or more of a social networking application, an e-mail application, and a web browser of the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user personal interests data includes one or more of user profile data, social networking data, web browser history data, e-mail text, and calendar appointment data.

7. A computer-implemented method for pre-fetching place page data from a remote mapping system to a mapping application for subsequent display on a client computing device executing the mapping application during conditions of no connectivity between the remote mapping system and the client computing device, the method comprising:

periodically sending user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data from the client computing device to a backend user preferences system, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes data indicating a particular map location that is preferred by a user of the client computing device and user personal interest data includes data indicating personal interests of the user;

receiving place page data from the remote mapping system in response to the sent user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data, the place page data including one or more of text, graphics, and data feed data describing a map feature corresponding to both a particular map location that is preferred by the user and a personal interest of the user;

storing the received place page data in a cache memory of the client computing device; and

subsequently retrieving the matched place page data from the cache memory of the client computing device without further communication between the remote mapping system and the client computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes one or more of a city name, an address, an airport code, or global positioning system coordinates.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the user preferred geographic location data is indicated by one or more of a GPS position that was flagged using the mapping application, a geographic location returned to the client computing device by the remote mapping system, and a geographic location having an indicated preference.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein periodically sending user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data from the client computing device to a backend user preferences system includes periodically sending the user personal interests data from one or more of a social networking application, an e-mail application, and a web browser of the client computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user personal interests data includes one or more of user profile data, social networking data, web browser history data, e-mail text, and calendar appointment data.

13. The client computing device of claim 11, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes one or more of a city name, an address, an airport code, or global positioning system coordinates.

14. The client computing device of claim 11, wherein the user preferred geographic location data is indicated by one or more of a GPS position that was flagged using the mapping application, a geographic location returned to the client computing device by the remote mapping system, and a geographic location having an indicated preference.

15. The client computing device of claim 14, wherein the user personal interests data includes one or more of user profile data, social networking data, web browser history data, e-mail text, and calendar appointment data.

12. A client computing device comprising:

a processor;

a memory storing an application and instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions for using the processor to periodically cause user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data to be sent from the client computing device to a backend user preferences system via a network connection, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes data indicating a particular map location that is preferred by a user of the client computing device and user personal interest data includes data indicating personal interests of the user;

a transceiver for receiving place page data from a remote mapping system via the network connection, the place page data received in response to the sent user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data, the place page data including one or more of text, graphics, and data feed data describing a map feature corresponding to both the particular map location that is preferred by the user and the personal interest of the user;

a cache memory to store the place page data received by the transceiver; and

a mapping module including instructions to cause the processor to display the received place page data from the cache memory without further communication between the remote mapping system and the client computing device.

16. A remote mapping system comprising:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor and storing a map controller including instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including;

first instructions causing the processor to receive a request for place page data corresponding to user preference data generated by a user preferences system in communication with the map controller, the user preference data including a combination of user preferred geographic location data and user personal interests data generated by a client computing device, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes data indicating a particular map location that is preferred by a user of the client computing device and user personal interest data includes data indicating personal interests of the user,

second instructions causing the processor to match the user preference data with place page data of the remote mapping system, wherein the place page data includes one or more of text, graphics, and data feed data describing a map feature corresponding to both a particular map location that is preferred by the user and a personal interest of the user;

third instructions causing the processor to send the matched place page data from the remote mapping system to the client computing device for storage in a cache memory of the client computing device, wherein the client computing device is configured to subsequently retrieve the matched place page data from the cache memory without further communication between the remote mapping system and the client computing device.

17. The remote mapping system of claim 16, wherein the user preferred geographic location data includes one or more of a city name, an address, an airport code, or global positioning system coordinates.

18. The remote mapping system of claim 17, wherein the user preferred geographic location data is indicated by one or more of a GPS position that was flagged using a mapping application of the client computing device, a geographic location returned to the client computing device by the remote mapping system, and a geographic location having an indicated preference.

19. The remote mapping system of claim 18, wherein the user personal interests data includes one or more of user profile data, social networking data, web browser history data, e-mail text, and calendar appointment data.

20. The remote mapping system of claim 16, wherein the instructions further include fourth instructions causing the processor to ignore a subsequent request for place page data including the matched place page data.