Selecting destinations or points of interest

• US 9,454,544 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kolluri, Bala Venkata Sai Ravi Krishna, Sahai, Vikram
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bromell, Alexandria
• Application Number:
  US13/853,999
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 707/724, 707/918, 707/915, 701/426
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for computerized travel services. One of the methods includes identifying points of interest or destinations associated with a travel location by querying a geographic data store that includes data mapping travel locations to points of interest or destinations; determining for each of the points of interest or destination: a count of travel related documents that refer to the point of interest or destination, a count of travel related queries that refer to the point of interest or destination, a count of photographs that are geographically related to the point of interest or destination, and a popularity score based at least in part on the count of travel documents, the count of travel queries, and the count of photographs; and selecting a selected point of interest or destination based at least in part on the respective popularity scores.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, by operation of a system comprising one or more computers, a plurality of points of interest associated with a travel location by querying a geographic data store that includes data mapping travel locations to points of interest;

determining, by operation of the system, for each of the plurality of points of interest;

a count of travel related documents that refer to the point of interest and refer to an activity,

a count of travel related queries that refer to the point of interest and to the activity,

a count of photographs that are geographically related to the point of interest, and

a popularity score for the activity based at least in part on the count of travel documents, the count of travel queries, and the count of photographs; and

selecting, by operation of the system, a selected point of interest based at least in part on the respective popularity scores.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the travel related documents include web pages having terms associated with travel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the travel related documents include social network posts having terms associated with travel.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the travel related documents include social network pages having terms associated with travel.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the travel related queries include terms associated with travel and the point of interest.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of photographs that is associated with a respective geographic location is within a threshold distance from the point of interest.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining for each of the plurality of points of interest, by operation of the system, a combined query distance by calculating the distances between locations associated with the travel related queries and the point of interest;

wherein the respective popularity scores for the plurality of points of interest is based at least in part on the respective combined query distance.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a travel query; and

determining, by operation of the system, the travel location and an activity based at least in part on the travel query;

wherein the travel related documents are documents that refer to the activity and the travel related queries are queries that refer to the activity.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the travel location is a city.

10. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

identifying, by operation of a system comprising one or more computers, a plurality of points of interest associated with a travel location by querying a geographic data store that includes data mapping travel locations to points of interest;

determining, by operation of the system, for each of the plurality of points of interest;

a count of travel related documents that refer to the point of interest and refer to an activity,

a count of travel related queries that refer to the point of interest and to the activity,

a count of photographs that are geographically related to the point of interest, and

a popularity score for the activity based at least in part on the count of travel documents, the count of travel queries, and the count of photographs; and

selecting, by operation of the system, a selected point of interest based at least in part on the respective popularity scores.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the travel related documents include web pages having terms associated with travel.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the travel related documents include social network posts having terms associated with travel.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the travel related documents include social network pages having terms associated with travel.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the travel related queries include terms associated with travel and the point of interest.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of photographs that is associated with a respective geographic location is within a threshold distance from the point of interest.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

determining for each of the plurality of points of interest, by operation of the system, a combined query distance by calculating the distances between locations associated with the travel related queries and the point of interest;

wherein the respective popularity scores for the plurality of points of interest is based at least in part on the respective combined query distance.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a travel query; and

determining, by operation of the system, the travel location and an activity based at least in part on the travel query;

wherein the travel related documents are documents that refer to the activity and the travel related queries are queries that refer to the activity.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein the travel location is a city.

19. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

identifying, by operation of a system comprising one or more computers, a plurality of points of interest associated with a travel location by querying a geographic data store that includes data mapping travel locations to points of interest;

determining, by operation of the system, for each of the plurality of points of interest;

a count of travel related documents that refer to the point of interest and refer to an activity,

a count of travel related queries that refer to the point of interest and to the activity,

a count of photographs that are geographically related to the point of interest, and

a popularity score for the activity based at least in part on the count of travel documents, the count of travel queries, and the count of photographs; and

selecting, by operation of the system, a selected point of interest based at least in part on the respective popularity scores.

20. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein the travel related documents include web pages having terms associated with travel.

21. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein the travel related documents include social network posts having terms associated with travel.

22. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein the travel related documents include social network pages having terms associated with travel.

23. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein the travel related queries include terms associated with travel and the point of interest.

24. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein each of the plurality of photographs that is associated with a respective geographic location is within a threshold distance from the point of interest.

25. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 further encoded with instructions, that when executed by the one or more computers, further cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

determining, for each of the plurality of points of interest, a combined query distance by calculating the distances between locations associated with the travel related queries and the point of interest;

wherein the respective popularity scores for the plurality of points of interest is based at least in part on the respective combined query distance.

26. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19 further encoded with instructions, that when executed by the one or more computers, further cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving a travel query; and

determining the travel location and an activity based at least in part on the travel query;

wherein the travel related documents are documents that refer to the activity and the travel related queries are queries that refer to the activity.