System for providing geographically relevant content to a search query with local intent

• US 7,774,348 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Demir, Ramazan, Patel, Devesh, Riise, Soren, Delli Santi, Jim W.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DEBBIE M
• Application Number:
  US11/729,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20080243821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 6
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for utilizing local intent to provide geographically relevant information in response to a search query. The search query results and advertisements may be chosen based at least in part on the local intent and geographic range of the search query. The search query may be assigned a location identifier based on the local intent that is used to expand the geographic range for ranking and selecting relevant content and advertisements.

Claims

1. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for selecting relevant advertisements in response to a query, the instructions operative for:

receiving a location and a geographic range associated with a query;

assigning a location identifier for the query location;

generating an expansion list of locations based on the location identifier and the geographic range for the query location, wherein the expansion list comprises expanding the geographic range from the location identifier to include a parent location and an adjacent location;

identifying a candidate set of advertisements that correspond to the expansion list of locations;

ranking advertisements from the candidate set of advertisements; and

selecting at least one advertisement from the candidate set of advertisements based on the ranking.

2. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the candidate set of advertisements includes relevant advertisements that satisfy the query.

3. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the ranking further comprises identifying advertisements closest to the geographic range and identifying advertisements that match the query.

4. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the selected at least one advertisement is displayed in response to the query with query results.

5. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the advertisements are ranked based at least in part on a location identifier associated with each advertisement that is compared with the location identifier for the query location.

6. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the expansion list includes a list of location identifiers.

7. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the generating the expansion list further comprises expanding the geographic range of the location identifier to include a child location.

8. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the advertisements are each associated with a location identifier that is compared with the location identifier for the query location in the selection of the candidate set of advertisements.

9. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the query is a search performed by a search engine, wherein the query comprises search terms.

10. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the location is determined based on a local intent of a user performing the query.

11. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the location identifier for the location defines a relationship with at least one of a parent location, a child location, an adjacent location, or combinations thereof.

12. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the location is identified based on at least one of an explicit location in the query, an IP address, user information, a root term analysis, or combinations thereof.

13. The storage medium of claim 12 wherein the explicit location in the query is a location term that is combined with the root term of the query.

14. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the geographic range is determined based on a local intent value.

15. A computerized method for selecting relevant content at a search engine comprising:

receiving, at the search engine, a search query associated with a location;

calculating, with a localness calculator, a geographic range for the location associated with the search query;

determining, with a processor, a candidate set of available content based on a contextual relevancy of the search query and based on the geographic range for the search query location;

expanding from the location to determine location bands, wherein the geographic range sets an outer bound for an outermost location band;

identifying which of the location bands include a location for each of the available content in the candidate set;

ranking content in the candidate set based on the contextual comparison with the search query and based on the identified location band for the content, wherein content in a closer location band is ranked higher; and

selecting, with a matching engine, the relevant content from the candidate set of available content based on the ranking.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the search query is associated with the location by a location identifier.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the location bands comprise a parent location band, and a child location band, wherein the child location band comprises a shorter distance from the location than the parent location band.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the relevant content comprises at least one advertisement displayed with search results from the search query.

19. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for displaying geo-relevant advertisements, the storage medium comprising instructions operative to:

receiving a search query;

determining a local intent of the search query;

assigning a location identifier to the search query based on the local intent;

compiling a list of relevant geographies from the location identifier; and

selecting the geo-relevant advertisement from a plurality of available advertisements, wherein the geo-relevant advertisement is associated with at least one of the relevant geographies;

wherein the geo-relevant advertisement is selected from the plurality of available advertisements based on a ranking that comprises a quality score multiplied by a bid value, wherein the quality score is based on historical click through value from the available advertisements.

20. The storage medium according to claim 19 wherein the local intent is determined based on an analysis of past search queries including the same search query.

21. A computerized system ranking relevant content, the system comprising:

a search engine coupled with a network and configured to receive a search query over the network;

a local intent analyzer coupled with the search engine and configured to determine a location identifier for the search query with a processor, wherein the local intent analyzer comprises;

a location extractor processor that parses the search query for any location information; and

an intent determiner processor that determines if the location information includes the location identifier;

a geographic database coupled with the local intent analyzer and configured to store a geographic range for the location identifier;

an advertisement provider coupled with the search engine and configured to provide available advertisements from an advertiser database to be displayed for the search query; and

a matching engine coupled with the local intent analyzer and the advertisement provider and configured to rank, with a processor, a set of candidate advertisements based on, a quality score multiplied by a bid value, wherein the quality score is based on historical click through value from the set of candidate advertisements.

22. The system according to claim 21 wherein the available advertisements are each associated with a location.