Using boundaries associated with a map view for business location searching

• US 7,698,059 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Clair, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US12/059,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20080183377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A system aggregates entity location information from multiple documents distributed among multiple locations in a network. The system searches the entity location information to identify a first set of entities located within the entirety of a first geographic region selected by a user. The system provides a first digital map to the user via a network, the first digital map including the first geographic region and further including visual representations of the first set of identified entities and their associated geographic locations.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an interface to receive input from a user via a network; and

a processor to;

define a first geographic region associated with a digital map based on first user input,

search business location information to identify a first set of businesses located within an entirety of the first geographic region,

define a second geographic region associated with the digital map based on second user input, where the second geographic region is defined by at least one of zooming in or zooming out of the digital map or traversing north, south, east or west with respect to the digital map to define the second geographic region, and

automatically search the business location information to identify a second set of businesses located within an entirety of the second geographic region in response to defining the second geographic region.

2. The system of claim 1, where the processor is further to:

provide a list of the identified second set of businesses to the user at a same time as providing a second digital map that depicts the second geographic region.

3. The system of claim 1, where the first geographic region has a first scale and where the second geographic region has a second scale that is different than the first scale.

4. The system of claim 1, where the first geographic region is centered on a first geographic location and the second geographic region is centered on a second, different geographic location.

5. The system of claim 1, where the processor is further to:

aggregate the business location information from a plurality of distributed documents.

6. The system of claim 5, where the processor is further to:

indexing the aggregated business location information.

7. The method of claim 6, where the processor is further to:

search the indexed business location information to identify the second set of businesses located within the entirety of the second geographic region.

8. A computer-readable memory device containing instructions for controlling at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

aggregating entity location information from a plurality of documents distributed among a plurality of locations in a network;

searching the entity location information to identify a first set of entities located within an entirety of a first geographic region selected by a user;

providing a first digital map to the user via the network, the first digital map covering the first geographic region and including visual representations of the identified first set of entities and their associated geographic locations;

receiving a selection from the user that identifies a second geographic region in response to the user interacting with the first digital map, where the selection includes at least one of zooming in or zooming out of the first digital map or traversing north, south, east or west with respect to the first digital map to identify the second geographic region;

automatically searching the entity location information to identify a second set of entities located within an entirety of the second geographic region in response to receiving the selection; and

providing a second digital map to the user via the network, the second digital map encompassing the second geographic region and including visual representations of the identified second set of entities and their associated geographic locations.

9. The computer-readable memory device of claim 8, where the entities comprise one or more of businesses, private residences, or government offices.

10. The computer-readable memory device of claim 8, where the method further comprises:

identifying latitude and longitude information that corresponds to the first and second geographic regions.

11. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10, where searching the entity location information comprises:

comparing latitude and longitude information associated with the entity location information with the latitude and longitude information that corresponds to the first and second geographic regions to identify the first set of entities located within the entirety of the first geographic region and the second set of entities located within the entirety of the second geographic region.

12. The computer-readable memory device of claim 8, where the aggregated entity location information is indexed.

13. The computer-readable memory device of claim 12, where searching the entity location information comprises:

searching the indexed entity location information to identify entities located within the first and second geographic regions.

14. The computer-readable memory device of claim 8, where the method further comprises:

ranking the identified entities located within the first geographic region, and

ranking the identified entities located within the second geographic region,

where providing the first and second digital maps to the user comprises;

providing the ranked identified entities to the user.

15. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

means for aggregating entity location information from a plurality of documents distributed among a plurality of locations in a network;

means for searching the entity location information to identify a first set of entities located within an entirety of a first geographic region selected by a user;

means for providing a first digital map to the user via the network, the first digital map covering the first geographic region and including visual representations of the identified first set of entities and their associated geographic locations;

means for receiving a selection from the user that identifies a second geographic region in response to the user interacting with the first digital map, where the selection includes at least one of zooming in or zooming out of the first digital map or traversing north, south, east or west with respect to the first digital map to identify the second geographic region;

means for automatically searching the entity location information to identify a second set of entities located within an entirety of the second geographic region in response to receiving the selection; and

means for providing a second digital map to the user via the network, the second digital map encompassing the second geographic region and including visual representations of the identified second set of entities and their associated geographic locations.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for identifying latitude and longitude information that corresponds to the first and second geographic regions.

17. The system of claim 16, where the means for searching the entity location information comprises:

means for comparing latitude and longitude information associated with the entity location information with the latitude and longitude information that corresponds to the first and second geographic regions to identify the first set of entities located within the entirety of the first geographic region and the second set of entities located within the entirety of the second geographic region.

18. The system of claim 15, where the aggregated entity location information is indexed.

19. The system of claim 18, where the means for searching the entity location information comprises:

means for searching the indexed entity location information to identify entities located within the first and second geographic regions.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for ranking the identified entities located within the first geographic region, and

means for ranking the identified entities located within the second geographic region,

where means for providing the first and second digital maps to the user comprises;

means for providing the ranked identified entities to the user.