Activity-based place-of-interest database

• US 8,315,953 B1
• Filed: 12/19/2009
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pear Software, LLC
• Original Assignee: Andrew S. Hansen, Scott B. Hansen
• Inventors: Hansen, Andrew S, Hansen, Scott B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ouellette, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US12/653,923
• Time in Patent Office: 1,067 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A method for generating a database of activities associated with places of interests having names that are non-descriptive of the activity includes, providing a social network that includes a plurality of unique users, each user having a social network user account; providing a social network user interface for creating a place of interest entry, wherein the user input interface requests from the social network user an activity that can be performed at the place of interest; for each of the plurality of unique users creating a plurality of places of interest entries by (i) obtaining a location of the place of interest having a name or type of a place of interest (POI) associated therewith; and (ii) receiving from the particular user, an activity that can be performed at the place of interest, wherein the name or type of the place of interest is non-descriptive of the activity that can be performed at the place of interest. In addition, the method includes, for each of the place of interest entries, storing the location, the activity, and optionally the name or type of the POI in a relational database.

Claims

1. A method for generating places of interests (POIs) from a social network, the method comprising:

providing a social network that includes at least 10,000 unique users, each user having a social network user account, wherein a portion of the unique users are friends on the social network and have access to friend social network information;

for each of at least 10,000 of the unique users creating a plurality of POI entries using a user input interface, wherein each of the plurality of POIs is created by;

obtaining a location of a particular POI having a name or being of a type of POI;

receiving from the particular user a particular activity that can be performed at the particular POI, wherein the name or type of POI is non-descriptive of the particular activity;

generating an activity term from the particular activity received from the user; and

storing the activity term with the location of the particular POI in a relational database;

for each of at least a portion of the plurality of the POI entries, receiving a plurality of different activity terms from different unique social network users, wherein the different activity terms describe a same activity; and

for each the portion of the POI entries, grouping the plurality of different activity terms in the respective POI entry.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the activity is received from a user input interface that does not ask for the name or type of POI to be selected from a specific category.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein the activity is received from a user input interface that does not ask for the activity to be from a specific category.

4. A system as in claim 1, wherein the activity is received from a user input interface that requests input for the name or type of POI in a text box without providing a list of names or types of POIs to select from.

5. A method as in claim 1, further comprising providing a user input interface that requests from the user the location of the POI.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein providing the location includes receiving a GPS coordinate of the location of the point of interest from the user and associating the GPS coordinate with the name or type of point of interest or the activity that can be performed at the POI.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein providing the location includes receiving a street address for the location of the POI and accessing a name-based POI database to obtain a GPS coordinate of the location of the point of interest.

8. A method as in claim 1, wherein the plurality of POIs for at least a portion of each unique social network user are grouped into an individual list of POIs, the individual list of POIs being viewable on the social network in association with the social network user account.

9. A method as in claim 8, wherein each social network user has access to social network data of plurality of other social network users, wherein the accessible social network data of at least a portion of the other social network users includes an individual list of places of interest entries provided by each of the portion of the other social network users.

10. A method as in claim 1, wherein the plurality of unique users includes at least 1 million users.

11. A method as in claim 1, wherein the user input interface requests a rating of the place of interest and the rating is associated with the activity term in the relational database.

12. A relational database created using the method of claim 1.

13. A method for creating a relational database, comprising forming at least 1,000 different POI entries using the method of claim 1, wherein each of the at least 1,000 different POI entries has a plurality of different activity terms from different unique users that describe a same activity.

14. A method for providing activity based searches using social network data, comprising:

providing a relational database that stores at least 1,000 point of interest (POI) entries associated with a social network, each POI entry including;

a location of the POI

a plurality of different activity terms received from different unique social network users, wherein the different activity terms describe a same activity;

providing a user search interface configured to receive a search criteria from a user, the search criteria including an activity search term;

in response to a search request from the user, searching the database for activity terms that match the search criteria; and

displaying to the user at least a portion of the plurality of POIs that meet the search criteria.

15. A method as in claim 14, wherein at least 10,000 of the POI entries each further include related data including photographic data, the method further comprising displaying to the user the photographic data.

16. A method as in claim 14, wherein a plurality of the activity keywords are associated as being similar keywords for a same activity for purposes of identifying the match to the search criteria.

17. A method as in claim 16, wherein the association of the plurality of activity keywords is created by comparing similarities in word usage for a plurality of unique social network users describing an activity for a same point of interest location.

18. A method as in claim 14, further comprising displaying a plurality of advertisement in association with the display of the at least a plurality of POIs, wherein the advertisements are contextually related to the search term.

19. A method for generating places of interests (POIs) from a social network, the method comprising:

providing a social network that includes at least 10,000 unique users, each user having a social network user account, wherein a portion of the unique users are friends on the social network and have access to friend social network information;

for each of at least 10,000 of the unique users creating a plurality of POI entries, wherein each of the POI entries is created by;

obtaining a location of a particular POI;

receiving from the particular user a particular activity that can be performed at the location of the particular POI;

generating an activity term from the particular activity received from the user; and

storing the activity term with the location in a relational database;

for each of at least 1,000 POI entries, receiving a plurality of different activity terms from different unique social network users, wherein the different activity terms describe a same activity; and

for each of the at least 1,000 POI entries, grouping the plurality of different activity terms in the respective POI entry.

20. A method as in claim 19, wherein the plurality of POIs for each of the at least 10,000 unique users form a list associated with each user'"'"'s respective social network, the method further comprising displaying the list POIs of a particular unique user to a social network friend using the social network.