Presentation of local results

• US 7,966,321 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Issued: 06/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lu, Charity Yueh-Chwen, Wolosin, Gabriel
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson; Greta L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilcox; James J
• Application Number:
  US11/624,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20080172374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707999001-999206, 707/728, 707/752, 707/765, 707/769
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes receiving from a remote device a search query, generating a local result set and one or more non-local result sets for the search query, determining a display location for the local result set relative to the non-local result set based on a position of the search query in a local relevance indicium.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a computer server system from a remote device, a search query;

in response to receiving the search query, generating at least two sets of results that are responsive to the search query, including;

generating a local result set that is responsive to the search query and that includes a plurality of search results that correspond to a geographic location to which the search query is determined to be directed,

generating one or more non-local result sets that each include a plurality of non-local search results and are responsive to the search query, wherein the non-local search results do not correspond to a geographic location to which the search query is determined to be directed;

determining for the particular received search query a local relevance indicium that indicates a likelihood that the search query is directed to location-specific search results for the geographic location to which the search query is determined to be directed, wherein the local relevance indicium is generated by a machine learning system that has been trained on prior search queries;

determining a first display location for the local result set, the first display location being a location relative to the one or more non-local result sets and determined based on the local relevance indicium; and

transmitting, from the computer server system to the remote device, code that when executed, generates a display on the remote device that shows the local result set displayed at a location relative to the one or more non-local result sets according to the first display location determined based on the local relevance indicium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display location for the local result is based on the local relevance indicium only if the search query does not contain an explicit location identifier, and the first display location for the local result depends on the explicit location identifier if the search query does contain an explicit location identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-local result set comprises a web search result set.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the local result set and the one or more non-local result sets in one transmission to the remote device, formatted for display of the local result set on the remote device in the determined first display location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display location for the local result set is in front of a display location for the one or more non-local result sets if the search query has a high local relevance indicium.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, if the search query has a high local relevance indicium, the local result set is displayed in response to the search query and the one or more non-local result sets are not displayed but are made available for display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the local relevance indicium is generated from a list of search queries predetermined to be particularly relevant to local results or particularly non-relevant to local results.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the local relevance indicium is determined based on a set of rules that are applied to the search query.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of rules is generated by analyzing two or more factors selected from the group consisting of query language, query domain location, or quality of search results for query.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a geographic location has been associated with the remote device, and affecting the level of indicium needed to change the display location for the local result set relative to the non-local result set based on the determination.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting the local result set and the one or more non-local result sets to be displayed in a tabbed array in order of decreasing correlation between each category-directed result set and the search query.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query is received from a mobile device.

13. A computer-implemented apparatus for generating ordered search results, comprising:

one or more computer servers including;

a search query processor configured to receive and process a search request from a remote device;

a search engine, operating on computer processors of at least some of the one or more computer servers, that receives the processed search request and generates a plurality of category-related search result groups that include

a local results group that includes a plurality of search results that are determined by the search engine to correspond to a geographic location to which the search request is determined to be directed; and

one or more non-local results groups that each include a plurality of search results that are not determined by the search engine to correspond to the geographic location;

a local results ranker that determines a position of the local results group for presentation to a user on a display of a computing device by determining an indicium of locality for the search request that identifies a likelihood that the search request is directed to search results for a particular geographic location, wherein the indicium of locality is generated by a machine learning system that has been trained on prior search requests received by the search query processor; and

a results formatter programmed to generate code for execution on the remote device, that when executed, generates a display on the remote device that shows the local result group at the determined position and places the one or more non-local result groups in front of or behind the local result group, as presented on the remote device, based on the indicium of locality.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a results formatter that formats the plurality of category-related search result groups in a web document to be displayed in a graphical user interface on the remote device with an array of selectable tabs, wherein each of the selectable tabs corresponds to a different category of information.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein generating the indicium of locality includes using a list of search queries predetermined to be particularly relevant to local results or particularly non-relevant to local results.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the indicium of locality is determined based on a set of rules that are applied to the search query.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the set of rules is generated by analyzing two or more factors selected from the group consisting of query language, query domain location, or quality of search results for query.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the local results ranker determines whether a location has been associated with the remote device, and affects the level of indicium needed to change the display location for the local result set relative to the non-local result set based on the determination.

19. A computer-implemented apparatus for generating ordered search results, comprising:

one or more computer servers including;

a search query processor configured to receive and process a search request from a remote device;

a search engine that receives the processed search request and generates a plurality of category-related search result groups that include

a local results group that contains a plurality of search results that are determined by the search engine to correspond to a geographic location to which the search request is determined to be directed; and

one or more non-local results groups that each include a plurality of search results that are not determined by the search engine to correspond to the geographic location;

means for determining a position of the local results group for presentation to a user by determining an indicium of locality for the search request that identifies a likelihood that the search request is directed to search results for a particular geographic location, wherein the indicium of locality is generated by a machine learning system that has been trained on prior search requests received by the search query processor; and

a results formatter programmed to generate code for execution on the remote device, that when executed, generates a display on the remote device that shows the local result group at the determined position and places the one or more non-local result groups in front of or behind the local result group, as presented on the remote device, based on the indicium of locality.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a computer server system from a remote device, a search query;

determining a geographic location to associate with the search query;

generating a first set of search results using the received search query and the determined geographic location;

generating a second set of search results using the received search query but not the determined geographic location;

determining for the received search query a local relevance indicium that indicates whether a user who submitted the search query is likely to be more interested in the first set of search results or the second set of search results;

formatting a message having content, for transmission to the remote device, so that when the message is initially displayed on the remote device one of the first set of search results or the second set of search results is initially displayed in preference to the other set of search results based on the local relevance indicium that indicates whether the user is likely to be interested in the first set of search results or the second set of search result; and

transmitting the message to the remote device;

wherein the local relevance indicium is generated by a machine learning system that has been trained on prior search queries.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the local relevance indicium is generated from a list of search queries predetermined to be particular relevant to local results or particularly non-relevant to local results.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the local relevance indicium is generated based on a set of rules that are applied to the search query.