Prioritizing points of interest in unfamiliar regions

• US 8,983,998 B1
• Filed: 12/03/2012
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Spence, Stephen Timothy
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US13/692,985
• Time in Patent Office: 834 Days
• Field of Search: 707/721, 707/723, 707/724, 707/733, 707/734, 707/735, 707/737, 707/748, 707/749, 707/750, 707/751, 707/752, 707/758, 707/767, 707/E17.137, 707/918, 707/919, 705/1.1, 705/7.29, 705/7.32, 705/7.34, 705/14.4, 705/14.52, 705/14.53, 705/14.57, 705/14.58, 705/14.6, 705/14.67, 705/15
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for prioritizing points of interest. A system is configured to receive a plurality of points of interest (POIs) selected for a user, identify at least one point of interest in the plurality of POIs that has been assigned a rating by a linker entity that is associated with a first geographic region that is associated with the user and a second geographic region that is not associated with the user, prioritize the at least one identified point of interest, and select, based on the prioritizing, a subset of the plurality of POIs to be presented to the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for prioritizing points of interest, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of points of interest (POIs) selected for a first user in response to a search query submitted by the first user, wherein the first user has assigned ratings to at least a threshold number of points of interest in a first geographic region but not in a second geographic region, the second geographic region being at least a threshold distance away from the first geographic region;

identifying a second user who has assigned ratings to at least the threshold number of points of interest in both the first geographic region and the second geographic region;

identifying at least one point of interest in the plurality of POIs that has been assigned a rating by the second user, wherein the at least one identified point of interest is in the second geographic region;

prioritizing the at least one identified point of interest among the plurality of POIs based on the rating by the second user of the at least one identified point of interest; and

selecting, based on the prioritizing, a subset of the plurality of POIs to be presented to the first user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a similarity score for the second user; and

storing an identifier for the second user and the similarity score for the second user in a record.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the similarity score is calculated based on at least one of a number of common points of interest that the second user and the first user have both rated and a similarity in rating assigned to a point of interest by the second user and the first user.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the prioritizing of the at least one identified point of interest among the plurality of POIs is further based on the similarity score for the second user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing of the at least one identified point of interest among the plurality of POIs is based on a number of linker entities that have assigned a rating to the at least one identified point of interest.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the prioritizing of the at least one identified point of interest among the plurality of POIs comprises modifying a rank score associated with the at least identified one point of interest.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of POIs selected for the first user are selected in response to a search query submitted by the first user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of POIs selected for the first user are selected as recommendations for the first user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the subset of the plurality of POIs to a client device to be presented to the first user.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising partitioning a geographic area into a plurality of geographic regions.

11. A system for prioritizing points of interest, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

generating a selection of points of interest (POIs) for a first user in response to a search query submitted by the first user, wherein the first user has assigned ratings to at least a threshold number of points of interest in a first geographic region but not in a second geographic region, the second geographic region being at least a threshold distance away from the first geographic region;

identifying a second user who has assigned ratings to at least the threshold number of points of interest in both the first geographic region and the second geographic region;

identifying at least one point of interest in the selection of POIs that has been assigned a rating by the second user, wherein the at least one identified point of interest is in the second geographic region;

prioritizing the selection of POIs based on the rating by the second user of the at least one identified point of interest; and

selecting, based on the prioritizing, a subset of the selection of POIs to be presented to the first user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating a similarity score for the second user based on at least one of a number of points of interest that the second user and the first user have both rated and a similarity in rating assigned to a point of interest by the second user and the first user; and

wherein the prioritizing of the selection of POIs is based on the similarity score for the second user that has assigned the rating to the at least one point of interest.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the prioritizing of the selection of POIs comprises increasing a rank score associated with the at least one identified point of interest.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of points of interest (POIs) selected for a first user in response to a search query submitted by the first user, wherein the first user has assigned ratings to at least a threshold number of points of interest in a first geographic region but not in a second geographic region, the second geographic region being at least a threshold distance away from the first geographic region;

identifying a second user who has assigned ratings to at least the threshold number of points of interest in both the first geographic region and the second geographic region;

identifying a point of interest in the plurality of POIs that has been assigned a rating by the second user, wherein the at least one identified point of interest is in the second geographic region; and

prioritizing the plurality of POIs based on the rating by the second user of the identified point of interest.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the prioritizing of the plurality of POIs is further based on a similarity score for the second user.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a search query submitted by the first user; and

selecting, in response to the receiving of the search query, a subset of the plurality of POIs to present to the first user based on the prioritizing of the plurality of POIs.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting the subset of the plurality of POIs to a client device to be presented to the first user.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise partitioning a geographic area into a plurality of geographic regions.