Search guided by location and context

• US 8,874,592 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Flake, Gary W., Gates, William H. III, Horvitz, Eric J., Goodman, Joshua T., Chaudhuri, Surajit, Griffin, Trenholme J., Hurst-Hiller, Oliver, Moss, Kenneth A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Amresh
• Application Number:
  US11/427,287
• Publication Number:
  US 20080005071A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,044 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/754, 707/732
• US Class Current: 707/754
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• 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: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

The subject disclosure pertains to web searches and more particularly toward influencing resultant content to increase relevancy. The resultant content can be influenced by reconfiguring a query and/or filtering results based on user location and/or context information (e.g., user characteristics/profile, prior interaction/usage temporal, current events, and third party state/context . . . ). Furthermore, the disclosure provides for query execution on at least a subset of designated web content, for example as specified by a user. Still further yet, a localized marketing system is disclosed that provides discount offers to users that match merchant criteria including proximity. A system for actively probing populations of users with different parameters and monitoring responses can be employed to collect data for identifying the best discounts and deadlines to offer to users to achieve desired results.

Claims

1. A system for web searching, comprising;

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the web search system including;

a search component that identifies relevant web content in accordance with a query from a user;

a location component that identifies limited web content by limiting the relevant web content to a geographic region surrounding a present physical location of the user, the user associated with a group of one or more people, the group comprising family of the user, friends of the user, co-workers of the user, people engaged in a common activity with the user or people engaged in a working collaboration with the user;

a context component that filters the limited web content based on user information and context information corresponding to one or more members of the group who are not the user, the context information being obtained, for each of the one or more members, via a computing device of a respective member of the one or more members; and

an interface component that presents the filtered, limited web content to the user,

wherein;

the location component includes a determination component that automatically identifies the location of a user based on data provided by one or more sensors, the one or more sensors providing one or more of GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, proximity or acceleration data; and

a size of the geographic region is determined based at least in part on the acceleration data, wherein the acceleration data includes a rate at which the location of the user changes.

2. The system of claim 1, the location component includes a determination component that identifies the geographic region based on information specified by the user.

3. The system of claim 1, the location component includes a determination component that determines a boundary of the geographic region based at least in part on a keyword in the query.

4. The system of claim 1, the user information identifies characteristics of the user including at least one of age, gender, ethnicity, education level or political affinity.

5. The system of claim 1, the user information includes maximum cognitive load or attention span that is employed to limit the amount of content provided at one time.

6. The system of claim 1, user information includes one of previous searches and selected content.

7. The system of claim 1, the context component filters the limited web content based on one of current events and temporal data.

8. The system of claim 1, the search component pushes advertisements that are near and relevant to a particular user based at least in part on the geographic region and the user information, the pushed advertisements optimized to maximize utility for at least one of the particular user or a merchant.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the group is a group of friends of the user, and the context information corresponding to one or more members of the group comprises a location of a member of the group.

9. A method comprising:

employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

identifying a present physical location of a user as an identified location;

monitoring news wires to identify current events;

receiving a web search query that includes one or more keywords, wherein none of the one or more keywords represents the identified current events;

filtering the web search query using criteria based on;

a region including the identified location,

the identified current events, and

user information;

returning web search results that include information associated with the identified current events based at least in part on the filtering;

adjusting boundaries of the region in the web search results based on at least one keyword in the web search query;

limiting the search query or sources of content based on information about the user and group context information associated with a group, the user associated with the group, the group context information corresponding to one or more members of the group who are not the user; and

limiting the search query or sources of content such that group context information of a member of the group who is physically closer to the user has a greater effect on limiting results of the search query than does group context information of a member of the group who is physically further from the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user information includes one or more of user age, gender, education, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation.

11. The method of claim 9, the acts further comprising filtering the web search queries based on historical click through.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising filtering advertisements displayed with search results based on one or more of the identified location or user information.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving a user-selected portion of a map that specifies the identified location.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining the identified location from the present geographical position of the user.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising limiting the number of results returned based on user tolerance.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising filtering search queries based on context.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein:

adjusting boundaries of the region in the web search results based on at least one keyword in the web search query comprises adjusting boundaries of the region based on a location of an item to which a query pertains, the item being identified based on the at least one keyword.

18. A system, embodied on a computer readable storage medium, that when executed by a processor, facilitates web-based searching, comprising:

means for identifying a present location of a user;

means for predicting a future location of the user based at least in part on acceleration data;

first means for limiting at least one of search queries or sources of content based on the predicted future location; and

second means for limiting the at least one of search queries or sources of content based on information about the user and group context information associated with a group, the user associated with the group, the group context information corresponding to one or more members of the group who are not the user, wherein

the second means for limiting limits the at least one of search queries or sources of content such that group context information of a member of the group who is physically closer to the user has a greater effect on limiting results of the at least one search query than does group context information of a member of the group who is physically further from the user.

19. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the web search system including;

a search component that identifies relevant web content in accordance with a query;

a location component that identifies limited web content by limiting the relevant web content to a region surrounding a present physical location of a user, wherein;

the region is not specifically included in the query;

the region comprises dimensions based at least in part on a dimension associated with a keyword of the query; and

the dimension is not entered by the user; and

a context component that filters the limited web content based on user information; and

a third-party component that obtains context information associated with at least one of a group or individual members of the group, wherein;

the group comprises a plurality of individual members; and

the context component filters the limited content using criteria based on the context information associated with the at least one of the group or individual members of the group such that the context information associated with a member of the group who is physically closer to the user has a greater effect on limiting results of the query than does context information associated with a member of the group who is physically further from the user.