System for determining the geographic range of local intent in a search query

• US 8,601,008 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Delli Santi, Jim W., Demir, Ramazan
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US13/460,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20120221548A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/754
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for determining the geographic range of a search query. A search query may include local intent which influences the results and advertisements that are displayed in response to the search query. The geographic range associated with the local intent may vary depending on the search query. The geographic range may be determined using probabilistic models that analyze historical searches to determine the geographic range of search queries.

Claims

1. A computerized method for determining geographic information about a search query comprising:

receiving the search query;

identifying a root term from the search query;

identifying a location term from the search query when the location term is part of the search query;

determining, with at least one processor, when the location term is part of the search query, geographic information for the search query based on the location term;

determining, with the at least one processor, when the location term is not part of the search query, geographic information for the search query by analyzing a query history of the root term, wherein the query history includes geographic information for the root terms.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic information comprises a location and a geographic range.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the geographic range is determined based on a plurality of frequencies by which the root term is associated with a plurality of location bands in the query history of the root term, further wherein one of the plurality of frequencies of the root term is associated with one of the plurality of location bands.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the geographic range determination further comprises:

assigning a value for each of the location bands, wherein the values represent a geographic range;

multiplying the frequency in each of the location bands with the value of the location band associated with that frequency; and

combining the multiplied values for the root term to form a local intent value, wherein the local intent value determines the geographic range.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the query history is stored in a root term database.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining, when the location term is not part of the search query, further comprises:

accessing the query history from the root term database; and

determining, based on the analysis, the geographic range for the search query based on any locations or geographic ranges stored in the root term database for the root term from the search query.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the search query, the root term, and the location term are stored in the root term database when the search query includes the location term.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the search query is received from a local search engine and the geographic information is based at least partially on location information from the local search engine.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic information for the root term is determined implicitly when no location term is explicitly included with that root term.

10. A system for determining geographic information about a search query comprising:

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

an extractor coupled with the search engine and configured to extract a root term from the search query and to extract a location term from the search query when the search query includes a location term;

a processor coupled with at least one of the search engine and the extractor that is configured to determine the geographic information about the search query, wherein the determination is based at least partially on the location term when the search query includes the location term; and

a database coupled with the processor and configured to store root terms extracted from a plurality of search queries and configured to store location terms associated with the stored root terms when the location terms are part of the search queries, or is configured to store the determined geographic information for respective search queries.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the geographic information comprises a location and a geographic range.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein further comprising:

a tagger coupled with the processor and configured to assign a value to each of the location terms, wherein the value is representative of the geographic range.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the processor determines the geographic range based on the location terms stored in the database that are associated with the root term from the search query.

14. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a content provider coupled with the search engine and configured to provide content in response to the search query; and

a matching engine coupled with the content provider and configured to compare the search query with the content available from the content provider.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the content provider comprises an advertisement provider, further wherein the content provided is at least one advertisement.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the at least one advertisement is geographically relevant based on the determined geographic range.

17. The system of claim 10 further comprising at least one of an internal data source or an external data source coupled with the database and configured to provide the plurality of search queries.

18. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for determining geographic range of a search query, the storage medium comprising instructions operative for:

identifying a root term from the search query;

accessing a query history of the root term from a root term database, wherein the query history includes geographic ranges associated with each root term stored in the root term database;

analyzing the query history of the root term including each of the geographic ranges stored in the query history that are associated with the root term from the search query; and

determining, based on the analysis, the geographic range for the search query based on the geographic ranges stored in the root term database for the root term from the search query.

19. The storage medium of claim 18 wherein the geographic range is determined at least partially based on a presence of a location term as part of the search query.

20. The storage medium of claim 18 wherein the geographic range is determined based on a plurality of frequencies by which the root term is associated with a plurality of location bands in the query history of the root term, further wherein one of the plurality of frequencies of the root term is associated with one of the plurality of location bands.