MOBILE DEVICE WITH LOCALIZED APP RECOMMENDATIONS

• US 20130339345A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Soto Matamala, Leonardo A., Huang, Ronald K., Herz, Scott, Shimada, Tad
• Granted Patent: US 9,195,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/16 Arrangements for providing special services to substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0024 Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services arrangements which combine a telephonic equipment and a computer H04M7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/03 Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/242 aging of topology database entries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Mobile devices can provide app recommendations that are relevant to a location of interest. A localized app recommendation can be triggered (e.g., by a mobile device coming within a threshold distance of an application hotspot or some other user action). A location of interest can be determined. The location of interest can be the current location of the mobile device or another location (e.g., the destination in a mapping app). Using the location of interest, a localized application ranking database with app hotspot data can be queried with location data representing the location of interest. App recommendations can be received and displayed on the mobile device. Icons for apps that are relevant to the location of interest can be visually distinguished from other apps.

Claims

1. A method of recommending locally relevant apps, the method comprising:

triggering, on a mobile device, a localized app recommendation;

determining, by the mobile device, a location of interest for the localized app recommendation;

querying a localized application ranking database with app hotspot data, wherein the query includes location data representing the location of interest;

receiving, from the localized application ranking database, one or more relevant application recommendations based on the location data; and

displaying the one or more relevant application recommendations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering of the localized app recommendation occurs when the mobile device comes within a predetermined radius of a hotspot.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering of the localized app recommendation occurs in response to a user request from a user interface of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying of the localized application ranking database occurs in response to a search input.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying of the one or more relevant applications includes a notification or an alert that is displayed on the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the localized application ranking database is stored locally on the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the localized application ranking database is pre-cached using an asynchronous delivery mechanism from a localized app recommendation server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of interest is a current location of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of interest is a location other than a current location of the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

ranking the one or more relevant app recommendations based on user data.

11. A method of discovering locally relevant apps, the method comprising:

displaying, on a user interface of a mobile device, a plurality of graphical elements corresponding to a plurality of applications;

determining a set of locally relevant applications by querying a localized application ranking database with app hotspot data, wherein the query includes location data representing the location of interest;

determining a set of applications that are not locally relevant; and

visually distinguishing, on the user interface, graphical elements corresponding to the set of identified locally relevant applications.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein visually distinguishing the graphical elements includes one or more of modifying the color, saturation, position, size, or opacity of the app icon.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the location of interest is a current location of the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

launching a first application, wherein the first application is in the set of locally relevant applications, responsive to a user selection of a graphical element corresponding to the first application.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

initiating a download of a first application, wherein the first application is in the set of locally relevant applications, responsive to a user selection of a graphical element corresponding to the first application.

16. A method of recommending locally relevant apps, the method comprising:

executing a first app on a mobile device, wherein the first app includes data entries with location data;

extracting the location data from the data entries,

querying a localized application ranking database with app hotspot data, wherein the query includes the location data;

receiving, from the localized application ranking database, one or more relevant application recommendations based on the location data; and

displaying the one or more relevant application recommendations.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the localized application ranking database is stored locally on the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the localized application ranking database is pre-cached using an asynchronous delivery mechanism from a localized app recommendation server.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving a selection of one or more relevant app recommendations; and

initiating a download of the one or more applications selected.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the recommended apps; and

launching the selected recommended app.