System and method for providing a geographic search function

• US 7,743,048 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Baldwin, Laura J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LeRoux; Etienne P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Witzenburg; Bruce A
• Application Number:
  US11/083,999
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5, 707/713, 707/709, 707/724, 707/736
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A system and method are provided for implementing a geographic search mode in connection with a search engine. The method may include indexing geographic locations for resources available to the search engine in a search engine index. The method may additionally include determining a target location for a particular user upon receiving a user query from the particular user and searching the search engine index for geographic location matches matching the target location.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a geographic search mode in connection with a search engine, the method comprising:

indexing geographic locations for resources available to the search engine in a search engine index;

determining a target location from one or more keywords in a query string submitted by a user to a search engine;

identifying the target location as a geographic city;

determining two or more alternative location cities within a pre-defined geographic radius around the geographic city with at least a minimum population of people;

suggesting that a user limit a search for at least one of the one or more keywords to the two or more alternative cities;

presenting a drop-down menu with the two or more alternative location cities arranged in alphabetic order;

receiving an indication, by the user, to limit the search for the at least one of the one or more keywords one of the two or more alternative cities;

searching web content for information relevant to the at least one of the one or more keywords and limited to the one of the two or more alternative cities; and

transmitting the information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the target location by finding a reverse IP address of the particular user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the target location by examining stored information pertaining to user settings.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining the target location by finding a reverse IP address of the particular user if no stored target location information is present.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising parsing a user query for location information.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing a suggestion to the particular user to search in an area near the parsed location information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing a geo-entity extractor for operating in conjunction with a crawler to crawl available information sources and extract location information.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising implementing a geo-tagger for attaching a geo-tag to the available information sources and indexing the available information sources.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising creating a geo-tag including a latitude-longitude centroid point.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising attaching multiple geo-tags to at least one information source.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the particular user with a selectable drop-down list of cities so that the particular user may select a target location.

12. A geographic search system for allowing a user to generate search results relevant to a target location, the system comprising:

a geo-entity extractor for operating in conjunction with a crawler to crawl available information sources and extract location information;

a geo-tagger for;

(1) tagging and indexing information sources with extracted location information˜

(2) appending a text indication indicative of a latitude-longitude centroid pinpoint to web documents that have been determined to have high-confidence geographic matches;

one or more location determination components for determining a target location that is geographically located within a predetermined radius from a location identified in a query string submitted by a user to a search engine;

determining a target location from one or more keywords in a query string submitted by a user to a search engine;

identifying the target location as a geographic city;

determining two or more alternative location cities within a pre-defined geographic radius around the geographic city with at least a minimum population of people;

suggesting that a user limit a search for at least one of the one or more keywords to the two or more alternative cities;

presenting a drop-down menu with the two or more alternative location cities arranged in alphabetic order,

receiving an indication, by the user, to limit the search for the at least one of the one or more keywords one of the two or more alternative cities;

searching web content for information relevant to the at least one of the one or more keywords and limited to the one of the two or more alternative cities; and

transmitting the information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the location determination components include a user location determination component for finding a reverse IP address of a user inputting a query.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the location determination components comprise a user location determination component for determining the target location by examining stored information pertaining to user settings.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the location determination components further comprise a query location determination component for parsing a user query for location information.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a user interface for providing a suggestion to the user to search in an area near the parsed location information.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the geo-entity tagger creates and appends a geo-tag including a latitude-longitude centroid point.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising a user interface having a selectable drop-down list of cities so that the user may select the target location.

19. A user interface system for implementing geographic search tools that search an index for geographic location matches, the user interface system comprising:

a user-selectable local area option that prompts the geographic search tools to determine a user local area and search for indexed results in the determined local user area, wherein the user local area is determined by an IP address associated with a client computing device;

indexing geographic locations for resources available to the search engine in a search engine index;

determining a target location from one or more keywords in a query string submitted by a user to a search engine;

identifying the target location as a geographic city;

determining two or more alternative location cities within a pre-defined geographic radius around the geographic city with at least a minimum population of people;

suggesting that a user limit a search for at least one of the one or more keywords to the two or more alternative cities;

presenting a drop-down menu with the two or more alternative location cities arranged in alphabetic order,

receiving an indication, by the user, to limit the search for the at least one of the one or more keywords one of the two or more alternative cities;

searching web content for information relevant to the at least one of the one or more keywords and limited to the one of the two or more alternative cities; and

transmitting the information.

20. The user interface system of claim 19, further comprising a user selectable suggestion for a search location based on parsing of an input user query.