SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GEOLOCATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

• US 20140236916A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxar Intelligence Incorporated (Galileo Parent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DigitalGlobe, Inc. (Galileo Parent, Inc.)
• Inventors: Barrington, Luke, Ricklin, Nathan, Har-Noy, Shay
• Granted Patent: US 9,032,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/909 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location spatiotemporally dependent retrieval from the web G06F16/9537
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A system for geolocation of social media posts, comprising a social search engine; a geolocation software module; and a network-attached database comprising at least a media storage and a metadata storage. The social search engine retrieves a plurality of social media content postings and stores them in the database; and the geolocation software module geolocates a first social media content posting by: extracting metadata from the posting; extracting embedded location data from the posting; identifying an author of the posting; determining if the metadata storage contains location-related data about the author, if one was identified; determining if author location data is available; identifying any known place names in the social media content posting; disambiguating a plurality of locations obtained; and geotagging the posting and storing the resulting geotagged posting in the metadata storage.

Claims

1. A system for geolocation of social media posts, comprising:

a social search engine stored and operating on a network-attached computer;

a geolocation software module stored and operating on a network-attached computer; and

a network-attached database comprising at least a media storage and a metadata storage;

wherein the social search engine retrieves a plurality of social media content postings and stores them in the database; and

wherein the geolocation software module carries out the following steps to geolocate a first social media content posting;

(a) extracting any metadata present in or associated with the social media content posting;

(b) extracting any embedded location data in or associated with the social media content posting;

(c) identifying an author of the social media content posting;

(d) determining if the metadata storage contains location-related data about the author, if one was identified;

(e) determining if location data pertaining to a physical location of the author at the time of posting of the social media content posting is available;

(f) identifying any known place names present in or associated with the social media content posting;

(g) if a plurality of locations is obtained as a result of steps (a)-(f) that comprises more than one potential location, disambiguating, using a relevancy software module, the plurality of locations to determine a most likely location; and

(h) geotagging the social media content posting and storing the resulting geotagged social media content posting in the metadata storage.

2. A method for geolocation of social media posts, comprising the steps of:

(a) retrieving, using a social search engine stored and operating on a network-attached computer, a plurality of social media content postings;

(b) storing the plurality of social media content postings in a network-attached database comprising at least a media storage and a metadata storage;

(c) geolocating, using a geolocation software module stored and operating on a network-attached computer, a first social media content posting by;

(i) extracting any metadata present in or associated with the social media content posting;

(ii) extracting any embedded location data in or associated with the social media content posting;

(iii) identifying an author of the social media content posting;

(iv) determining if the metadata storage contains location-related data about the author, if one was identified;

(v) determining if location data pertaining to a physical location of the author at the time of posting of the social media content posting is available;

(vi) identifying any known place names present in or associated with the social media content posting; and

(vii) if a plurality of locations is obtained as a result of steps (i)-(vi) that comprises more than one potential location, disambiguating, using a relevancy software module, the plurality of locations to determine a most likely location; and

(d) geotagging the social media content posting and storing the resulting geotagged social media content posting in the metadata storage.