Searching and determining active area

• US 9,501,524 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Zhou, Shitian
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang, Hau H
• Application Number:
  US14/158,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20140207795A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses an example method and server for searching and determining an active area. A search request is received by a server. An active area corresponding to the search request is searched in accordance with the search request. Information of the active area is returned. According to the present techniques, the active area found by the server is determined objectively based on the obtained related information. The present techniques avoid increasing search times of the server, prevent waste of resources and bandwidth of the server, and improve the accuracy and reliability for searching the active area.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving a search request;

obtaining a map including a geographical region from a geographic location database;

dividing the geographical region into a plurality of grids;

obtaining multiple target objects and respective pieces of attribute information from an information database;

determining a respective grid corresponding to a target object of the multiple target objects based at least in part on a respective piece of attribute information of the target object;

calculating a respective popularity value of the respective grid in accordance with one or more target objects belonging to the respective grid;

determining multiple grids in accordance with popularity values of the plurality of grids and a respective distance between each individual pair of the plurality of grids; and

merging at least some of the multiple grids to form an active area, merging the at least some of the multiple grids to form the active area comprising;

merging a first grid and a second grid of the multiple grids to generate a set of grids;

determining a level of the set of grids;

continuously merging one or more additional grids of the multiple grids to the set of grids until the level of the set of grids reaches a preset level, wherein respective differences between respective levels of the one or more additional grids and the level of the set of grids are less than or equal to a difference threshold; and

setting the active area as an area range covered by the set of grids in response to determining that the level of the set of grids reaches the preset level;

searching the active area corresponding to the search request in accordance with the search request; and

returning information of the active area.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request includes geographical location information, and wherein searching the active area corresponding to the search request in accordance with the search request comprises searching the active area corresponding to the geographical location information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request includes a keyword, and wherein searching the active area corresponding to the search request in accordance with the search request comprises searching the active area corresponding to the keyword.

4. A method comprising:

obtaining a map including a geographical region from a geographic location database;

dividing the geographical region into a plurality of grids;

obtaining multiple target objects and respective pieces of attribute information from an information database;

calculating respective popularity values of the plurality of grids based at least in part on the multiple target objects; and

determining multiple grids based at least in part on the respective popularity values of the plurality of grids;

merging at least some of the multiple grids to form an active area, merging the at least some of the multiple grids to form the active area comprising;

merging a first grid and a second grid of the multiple grids to generate a set of grids;

determining a level of the set of grids;

continuously merging one or more additional grids of the multiple grids to the set of grids until the level of the set of grids reaches a preset level, wherein respective differences between respective levels of the one or more additional grids and the level of the set of grids are less than or equal to a difference threshold; and

setting the active area as an area range covered by the set of grids in response to determining that the level of the set of grids reaches the preset level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective pieces of attribute information include respective pieces of name attribute information of the multiple target objects, and wherein the method further comprises determining a name of the active area according to respective one or more pieces of name attribute information of one or more target objects in the active area.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the name of the active area comprises:

conducting statistics of a number of occurrence times of one or more keywords in the respective one or more pieces of name attribute information; and

using a keyword with a largest number of occurrence times as the name of the active area.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the respective pieces of attribute information further include respective pieces of address attribute information of the multiple target objects, the respective pieces of address attribute information including road name information, and wherein the method further comprises:

after determining the name of the active area, determining whether the name of the active area is a road name;

in response to determining that the name of the active area is the road name, obtaining one or more grids corresponding to the road name and revising the active area using the one or more grids.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

in response to determining that the name of the active area is not the road name, searching one or more matching target objects in the active area in accordance with the name of the active area;

determining whether a distance between a geographical location of a respective matching target object of the one or more matching target objects and a geographical location of a center location of the active area exceeds a distance threshold value;

in response to determining that the distance between the geographical location of the respective matching target object and the geographical location of the center location of the active area does not exceed the distance threshold value, determining whether a number of the one or more matching target objects exceeds a number threshold value;

in response to determining that the number of the one or more matching target objects exceeds the number threshold value, clustering the one or more matching target objects and revising the active area using corresponding one or more grids that the one or more matching target objects are located.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to determining that the distance between the geographical location of the respective matching target object and the geographical location of the center location of the active area exceeds the distance threshold value, excluding the respective matching object as an abnormal target object.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of the one or more matching target objects does not exceed the number threshold value, excluding the one or more matching target objects as abnormal target objects.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective pieces of attribute information include respective pieces of category attribute information of the multiple target objects, and wherein calculating the respective popularity values of the plurality of grids comprises:

categorizing the multiple target objects based at least in part on the respective pieces of category attribute information of the multiple target objects;

conducting statistics of a respective number of target objects with a respective category;

assigning a respective weight value to the respective category; and

calculating a respective popularity value of a respective grid of the plurality of grids based at least in part on the respective number of target objects with the respective category and the respective weight value of the respective category.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein calculating the respective popularity value of the respective grid based at least in part on the respective number of target objects with the respective category and the respective weight value of the respective category comprises using a formula

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective pieces of attribute information include respective pieces of transaction attribute information of the multiple target objects, and wherein calculating the respective popularity values of the plurality of grids comprises:

obtaining the respective pieces of transaction attribute information of the multiple target objects;

conducting statistics of a respective number of pieces of information in a respective information type;

assigning a respective weight value to the respective information type; and

calculating a respective popularity value of a respective grid of the plurality of grid based at least in part on the respective number of pieces of information in the respective information type and the respective weight value of the respective information type.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein calculating the respective popularity value of the respective grid based at least in part on the respective number of pieces of information in respective information type and the respective weight value of the respective information type comprises using a formula

15. A server comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

an information database;

a dividing unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that divides a geographical region into a plurality of grids;

an obtaining unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that obtains multiple target objects and respective pieces of attribute information from the information database;

a calculating unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that calculates popularity values of the plurality of grids based at least in part on the respective pieces of attribute information of the multiple target objects;

a second determining unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that determines multiple grids based at least in part on the popularity values of the plurality of grids and a distance between each individual pair of the plurality of grids; and

a forming unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that merges at least some of the multiple grids to form an active area, merging the at least some of the multiple grids to form the active area comprising;

merging a first grid and a second grid of the multiple grids to generate a set of grids;

determining a level of the set of grids;

continuously merging one or more additional grids of the multiple grids to the set of grids until the level of the set of grids reaches a preset level, wherein respective differences between respective levels of the one or more additional grids and the level of the set of grids are less than or equal to a difference threshold; and

setting the active area as an area range covered by the set of grids in response to determining that the level of the set of grids reaches the preset level.

16. The sever of claim 15, further comprising a naming unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that determines a name of the active area in accordance with respective pieces of name attribute information of a plurality of target objects in the active area.