Varied-importance proximity values

• US 8,463,772 B1
• Filed: 05/13/2010
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Aminzade, Daniel M., Renaud, Robert S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hakami, Masoud S
• Application Number:
  US12/779,823
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on one or more computer storage devices, for determining a distance importance factor for a search query, region or both. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a query from a client computing device and obtaining search results responsive to the query. A distance importance factor for the query is obtained that indicates the importance of proximity of a search result location to a query location. The search result location is a geographic location associated with a search result and the query location is a geographic location associated with the query. For each search result, based on the distance importance factor and on the proximity of the search result location to the query location, a proximity value is determined. The proximity values for the search results are provided to a ranking module configured to rank the search results.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system comprising:

one or more computers;

one or more data storage devices coupled to the one or more computers and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving query log data that includes a plurality of queries, and for each query one or more search results that were selected by users from a set of search results that were presented in response to the query;

generating, based on the received query log data, a collection of queries and a result distance for each query in the collection of queries, where for a particular query the result distance is representative of a typical distance between locations associated with search results that were presented in response to the particular query and selected by users and a query location for the particular query; and

generating, based on the received query log data, region data that identifies a plurality of geographic regions and data that associates each identified region with a region distance.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the one or more computers further comprise, for at least one query, operations for generating the result distance from one or more driving direction distances associated with one or more selected search results presented in response to the at least one query, where a driving direction distance is a distance determined in response to receiving a driving direction request for the corresponding selected search result.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the result distance for the at least one query is determined from the median of the one or more driving direction distances for the at least one query.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the result distance for the at least one query comprises the mean of the one or more driving direction distances for the at least one query.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the result distance for the particular query comprises the median of the distances between the locations for the one or more selected search results and the location for the particular query.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the result distance for the particular query comprises the mean of the distances between the locations for the one or more selected search results and the location for the particular query.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the result distance for a particular query comprises a scaled value between 0 and 1.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein for a particular region, the region distance is representative of a typical distance between the locations of queries having a query location within the particular region and the locations of respective search results that were presented in response to those queries and selected by users.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations further comprising:

generating a distance factor for each query in the collection of queries by dividing the result distance associated with each query by the region distance associated with the region that includes the query location.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving query log data that includes a plurality of queries, and for each query one or more search results that were selected by users from a set of search results that were presented in response to the query;

generating, based on the received query log data, a collection of queries and a result distance for each query in the collection of queries, where for a particular query the result distance is representative of a typical distance between locations associated with search results that were presented in response to the particular query and selected by users and a query location for the particular query; and

generating, based on the received query log data, region data that identifies a plurality of geographic regions and data that associates each identified region with a region distance.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising for at least one query, generating the result distance from one or more driving direction distances associated with one or more selected search results presented in response to the at least one query, where a driving direction distance is a distance determined in response to receiving a driving direction request for the corresponding selected search result.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the result distance for the at least one query is determined from the median of the one or more driving direction distances for the at least one query.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the result distance for the at least one query comprises the mean of the one or more driving direction distances for the at least one query.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the result distance for the particular query comprises the median of the distances between the locations for the one or more selected search results and the location for the particular query.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the result distance for a particular query comprises the mean of the distances between the locations for the one or more selected search results and the location for the particular query.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein for a particular region, the region distance is representative of a typical distance between the locations of queries having a query location within the particular region and the locations of respective search results that were presented in response to those queries and selected by users.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a distance factor for each query in the collection of queries by dividing the result distance associated with each query by the region distance associated with the region that includes the query location.

18. A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving query log data that includes a plurality of queries, and for each query one or more selected search results that were selected from a set of search results generated in response to the query;

generating, based on the received query log data, a collection of queries and stored data that associates each query with a result distance, where for a particular query the result distance is representative of a typical distance between selected search result locations associated with search results that were selected from the set of search results generated in response to the particular query and a query location for the particular query, each search result location being a geographic location associated with a search result and the query location being a geographic location associated with the particular query; and

generating, based on the received query log data, region data that identifies a plurality of geographic regions and data that associates each identified region with a region distance, where for a particular region the region distance is representative of a typical distance between geographic locations associated with search results that were selected in response to being provided for one or more search queries having a query location within the geographic region and query locations within the particular geographic region.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the query log data further comprises for each query one or more driving direction distances associated with the one or more selected search results for the query, where a driving direction distance is a distance determined in response to receiving a driving direction request for the corresponding selected search result, where the operations further comprise:

determining the result distance to associate with each query based on the one or more driving direction distances for the particular query.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the result distance for a particular query is determined from the median of the one or more driving direction distances for the particular query.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the result distance for a particular query comprises the mean of the one or more driving direction distances for the particular query.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the result distance for a particular query comprises the median of the distances between the search result locations and the query locations for the one or more selected search results for the particular query.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the result distance for a particular query comprises the mean of the distances between the search result locations and the query locations for the one or more selected search results for the particular query.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

generating data that associates each query in the collection of queries with a region-normalized distance that is the result distance associated with the query adjusted based on a geographic region that includes the query location.