DETERMINING AN ASPECT OF A PHYSICAL LOCATION BASED ON INTERACTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PHYSICAL LOCATION

• US 20160019556A1
• Filed: 10/01/2014
• Published: 01/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mazniker, Boris, Southey, Finnegan, Schilling, Christopher James, Duong, Quang Anh, Sarlos, Tamas
• Application Number:
  US14/504,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20160019556A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• 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: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for determining aspects of locations based on interactions of users with the locations. In some implementations, an aspect of a location may be determined based on comparing a first interaction measure for the location to a second measure. The first interaction measure may be determined based on a first group of interactions that are associated with the location. In some implementations, the second measure may be determined based on a second group of interactions that include additional interactions that are in addition to the interactions of the first group.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

determining a group of interactions from one or more databases, the determining based on association of the interactions of the group to a physical location;

determining a first interaction measure for the physical location based on the group of the interactions;

determining a second interaction measure based on a second group that includes additional interactions that are in addition to the interactions of the group, the additional interactions including at least one of;

additional physical location interactions associated with one or more additional physical locations that are in addition to the physical location, and

temporally distinct interactions associated with the physical location and temporally distinct from the interactions of the group; and

assigning an aspect to the physical location based on comparison of the first interaction measure to the second interaction measure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional interactions of the second group include the additional physical location interactions and further comprising:

including the additional physical location interactions in the second group based on similarity between the associated additional physical locations and the physical location.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining the similarity based on at least one of a category of the physical location and a geographic area of the physical location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactions of the group are associated with one or more first time periods and the additional interactions of the second group include the temporally distinct interactions and are associated with one or more second time periods.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first interaction measure is indicative of a quantity of interactions with the physical location during the first time periods and the anticipated interaction measure is indicative of a second quantity of interactions during the second time periods;

and wherein the aspect is indicative of a difference in the quantity of interactions and the second quantity of interactions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second time periods include a range of dates earlier in time than the first time periods, and wherein the aspect is indicative of one of:

positive trending when the difference indicates an increase that satisfies a threshold;

a newly opened business when the difference satisfies a newly opened business threshold; and

a closed business when the difference indicates a closed business threshold.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first time periods are a first time range across multiple dates and the second time periods are a second time range across multiple dates, and wherein the aspect is indicative of popularity of the physical location during the first time range.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interaction measure is indicative of a measure of repeat interactions with the physical location as indicated by the interactions of the group and the second interaction measure is indicative of repeat interactions with the additional physical locations as indicated by the additional interactions of the second group.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the first interaction measure includes:

determining the measure of repeat interactions based on determining a frequency for each of one or more quantities of repeat interactions; and

determining the first interaction measure based on the measure of repeat interactions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interaction measure is indicative of a quantity of interactions with the physical location.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, to a computing device of a user, an indication of the aspect of the physical location in combination with additional information related to the location.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a computing device of a user, a selection indicative of the aspect;

identifying the physical location based at least in part on the selection and the assignment of the aspect to the physical location; and

providing, to the computing device, information related to the physical location.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a query from a computing device of a user;

identifying information related to the physical location as responsive to the query; and

ranking the information relative to additional information responsive to the query based at least in part on the aspect.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the query includes one or more terms and ranking the information relative to the additional information based at least in part on the aspect includes:

determining a relationship between the aspect and at least a term of the terms; and

determining the ranking based on the relationship.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the group of interactions includes determining the group of interactions only when a quantity of the interactions of the group satisfies a privacy threshold.

16. A system, comprising:

memory storing instructions;

one or more processors operable to execute the instructions in the memory, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to;

determine a group of interactions from one or more databases, the determining based on association of the interactions of the group to a physical location;

determine a first interaction measure for the physical location based on the group of the interactions;

determine a second interaction measure based on a second group that includes additional interactions that are in addition to the interactions of the group, the additional interactions including at least one of;

additional physical location interactions associated with one or more additional physical locations that are in addition to the physical location, and

temporally distinct interactions associated with the physical location and temporally distinct from the interactions of the group; and

assign an aspect to the physical location based on comparison of the first interaction measure to the second interaction measure.

17. A computer implemented method, comprising:

determining a group of interactions from one or more databases, the determining based on associations of the interactions of the group with a physical location;

determining a first interaction measure based on the interactions of the group of interactions;

determining a second measure; and

assigning an aspect to the physical location based on comparison of the first interaction measure and the second measure.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first interaction measure is indicative of a measure of repeat interactions with the physical location as indicated by the interactions of the group and the second measure is one of a measure indicative of repeat interactions with one or more additional physical locations and a predetermined threshold value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second measure is determined based on a second group of interactions.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the first interaction measure includes:

determining the measure of repeat interactions based on determining a frequency for each of one or more quantities of repeat interactions; and

determining the first interaction measure based on the measure of repeat interactions.