Location aware search page elements

• US 8,560,561 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2010
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Govani, Tabreez, Dandekar, Nikhil, Muresan, Gheorghe
• Primary Examiner(s): PENG, HUAWEN A
• Application Number:
  US12/683,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20110167077A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• Field of Search: 707/767
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

User locality information can be used to improve various aspects of search results pages. Queries can be suggested based on the user location while excluding common query suggestions that involve an unrelated geographic entity. Deeplinks can also be modified to include location based suggestions. Additionally, results for specialized searches such as travel searches can be improved by employing user locality information.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage memory media storing computer-useable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method for providing location aware query suggestions, the method comprising:

receiving a first query;

generating a first plurality of query suggestions based on the first query;

detecting a query locality associated with the first query;

constructing one or more additional query suggestions based on a geographic entity associated with the detected query locality, the associated geographic entity corresponding to a geographic designation;

wherein constructing one or more additional query suggestions comprises;

determining neighbor geographic entities for the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality;

constructing a query suggestion corresponding to each neighbor geographic entity based on the first query and the neighbor geographic entity;

identifying at least one query suggestion, from the first plurality of query suggestions, associated with a second geographic entity different from the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality; and

displaying the constructed additional query suggestions without displaying the identified query suggestions.

2. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises displaying at least one query suggestion from the plurality of query suggestions without displaying the identified query suggestions.

3. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein the detected locality corresponds to the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality.

4. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein the detected query locality corresponds to a latitude and a longitude.

5. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein determining neighbor geographic entities comprises retrieving the neighbor geographic entities from a lookup table.

6. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one query suggestion corresponding to a second geographic entity comprises:

detecting a query term corresponding to a geographic entity in at least one query suggestion; and

comparing the detected query term with neighbor geographic entities for the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality.

7. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein constructing one or more additional query suggestions comprises constructing a query suggestion based on the first query and the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality.

8. The one or more computer-storage memory media of claim 1, wherein each identified query suggestion associated with a geographic entity different from the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality is not associated with a neighbor geographic entity of the geographic entity associated with the detected query locality.