System and method for requesting an updated user location

• US 9,325,797 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lapenna, Joseph, Lambert, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US13/409,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20150172394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/344, 455/90.1, 455/550.1, 455/521, 455/457, 455/418, 455/550, 455/407, 455/408
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for requesting an updated location, including a point of interest, from a user for display on an interactive map. On receiving from an interested user a request for a point of interest associated with a subscribed user'"'"'s current location, a request is transmitted to the subscribed user to check-in to the point of interest. In response to the request, the subscribed user selects a selected point of interest from a selection list. A representation of the subscribed user and the selected point of interest is then provided for display on an interactive map associated with the interested user.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable media including instructions that, when executed, perform a method for requesting a user to provide a point of interest associated with a current location, the method comprising:

providing for display at the user interface for a first computing device associated with a first subscribed user of a social network, selectable group of one or more second subscribed users of the social networks;

receiving, at the user interface for the first computing device, a selection corresponding to one of the one or more second subscribed users, the first subscribed user being different than the second subscribed user;

sending, from the first computing device to a second computing device, a request originating from the first subscribed user of the social network for an identifiable point of interest corresponding to a second subscribed user'"'"'s current geographic location of the second subscribed user, the second computing device being associated with the second subscribed user;

receiving, from the second computing device and in response to the request, an identifiable point of interest associated with the second subscribed user'"'"'s current geographic location, wherein the point of interest is selected by the second subscribed user at the second computing device; and

providing, for display at a user interface for the social network associated with one or more interested users including the first subscribed user, a representation of the second subscribed user at the current geographic location of the second subscribed user on an interactive map and the received identifiable point of interest associated with the second subscribed user'"'"'s current geographic location on the interactive map.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving from the one or more interested users the request for the identifiable point of interest.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein providing for display at the user interface the representation and the received point of interest includes:

providing the representation and the received point of interest for display on an interactive map associated with the one or more interested users.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 3, the method further comprising:

providing for display at the user interface the interactive map;

receiving the request in response to receiving at the interactive map a selection corresponding to the second subscribed user.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein the received point of interest is selected from a list of locations proximate to a current geographic location of the second subscribed user.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

on receiving the received point of interest, performing a search to retrieve supplemental details about the received point of interest; and

providing the supplemental details for display at the user interface.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

providing for display at the user interface, a list of related details related to the received point of interest;

receiving a selection corresponding to a selected one of the related details; and

providing the selected one of the related details for display at the user interface.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining the one or more interested users are in a group in common with the second subscribed user before providing the representation and the received point of interest for display at the user interface.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining that the one or more interested users regularly frequent the received point of interest before providing the representation and the received point of interest for display at the user interface.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 9, wherein determining that the one or more interested users regularly frequent the received point of interest includes determining that the one or more other users have performed a check-in at the point of interest more than a predetermined number of times over a predetermined period.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining that the second subscribed user has travelled outside a predetermined area before sending to the second subscribed user the request.

12. A computer-implemented method for requesting an updated location from a user for display on an interactive map, the method comprising:

providing for display at the user interface for a first computing device associated with a first subscribed user of a social network, selectable group of one or more second subscribed users of the social networks;

receiving, at the user interface for the first computing device, a selection corresponding to one of the one or more second subscribed users, the first subscribed user being different than the second subscribed user;

receiving, from the first computing device associated with the first user, a request for an identifiable point of interest corresponding to the second user'"'"'s current geographic location;

transmitting the request to a second computing device associated with the second user;

receiving from the second computing device associated with second user a selected point of interest corresponding to the second user'"'"'s current geographic location; and

providing for display on an interactive map associated with the first user, a representation of the second user at the current geographic location of the second user and the selected point of interest corresponding to the second user'"'"'s current geographic location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is received in response to receiving, at the interactive map, a selection corresponding to the second user.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

on receiving the selected point of interest, performing a search to retrieve supplemental details about the selected point of interest, and

providing the supplemental details for display in connection with the interactive map.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing a list of supplemental details associated the selected point of interest;

receiving a selection corresponding to one of the supplemental details; and

providing the selected one of the supplemental details for display in connection with the interactive map.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that one or more other users may be interested in the second user'"'"'s current geographic location; and

providing for display on an interactive map associated with the one or more other users, the representation of the second user at the current geographic location of the second user and the selected point of interest corresponding to the second user'"'"'s current geographic location.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining that one or more other users may be interested in the second user'"'"'s current geographic location includes:

determining that the one or more other users belong to a group in common with the second user.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein determining that one or more other users may be interested in the second user'"'"'s current geographic location includes:

determining that the one or more other users regularly frequent the selected point of interest.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining that the one or more other users regularly frequent the selected point of interest includes:

determining that the one or more other users have provided an indication of being at the selected point of interest more than a predetermined number of times over a predetermined period.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein determining that one or more other users may be interested in the second user'"'"'s current geographic location includes:

determining that the second user has travelled outside a predetermined area.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the selected point of interest is selected from a list of locations proximate to a geographic location of the second user.

22. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, including instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

providing for display at the user interface for a first computing device associated with a first subscribed user of a social network, selectable group of one or more second subscribed users of the social networks;

receiving, at the user interface for the first computing device, a selection corresponding to one of the one or more second subscribed users, the first subscribed user being different than the second subscribed user;

receive, from the first computing device associated with the interested user, a request for a point of interest related to a current geographic location of a second computing device associated with a subscribed user, the first computing device being different than the second computing device;

in response to receiving the request, transmit to the second computing device associated with the subscribed user a request to check-in to a current point of interest;

receive from the second computing device a selected point of interest, the selected point of interest being selected from a list of locations determined to be proximate to the current geographic location of the subscribed user; and

provide for display at the first computing device associated with the interested user, a representation of the subscribed user at the current geographic location of the subscribed user and the selected point of interest.