Geographic coding for location search queries

• US 20070198495A1
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Balakrishnan, Ramesh, Tran, Thai, Norris, James, Rasmussen, Lars, Muller, James, Buron, Florian
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,598 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/918 Location
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/919 Geographic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/921 Spatial

Abstract

A method for performing a location search includes receiving a location search query, determining key words corresponding to the location search query, identifying one or more documents that correspond to the key words in the location search query, and providing to a client system information identifying at least one location corresponding to the one or more documents.

Claims

1. A method for performing a location search, comprising:

receiving a location search query;

determining key words corresponding to the location search query;

identifying one or more documents that correspond to the key words in the location search query; and

providing at least one location corresponding to the one or more documents.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each document of the identified one or more documents has tokens corresponding to the determined key terms of the search query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the key words includes removing punctuation marks and non-location terms from the location search query.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the key words include one or more synonyms for one or more terms in the location search query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the one or more documents includes determining a canonical expression corresponding to the key words.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more documents are in an index that includes a plurality of documents that correspond to geographic features.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of documents include reference coordinates corresponding to the geographic features.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the one or more documents includes determining a score for each of the one or more documents.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a respective score is in accordance with a frequency of the key words in a plurality of documents, matches between one or more words in a respective document with one or more of the key words and sizes of geographic features corresponding to the key words.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the providing includes one location if a best score for a corresponding document is greater than a pre-determined multiple of a next best score for a next document in a top-N ranking of the one or more documents.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the providing includes a top-N ranking of locations corresponding to the one or more documents, and wherein the top-N ranking including documents having scores within a pre-determined range.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the locations in the top-N ranking includes a location identifier.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the locations in the top-N ranking includes a corresponding link to a map image.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing includes a map image corresponding to at least the one location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the map image is centered on at least the one location and includes a region less than a pre-determined size around at least the one location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein at least the one location includes two or more distinct locations in a region having all the key words in common, and wherein the map image includes tags corresponding to the two or more locations.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the one or more documents is independent of an order of the key words.

18. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more central processing units to execute programs;

memory; and

a program, stored in the memory and executed by the processor, the program including;

instructions for receiving a location search query;

instructions for determining key words corresponding to the location search query;

instructions for determining one or more documents that correspond to the key words in the location search query; and

instructions for providing to a client system information identifying at least one location corresponding to the one or more documents.

19. A computer program product, for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for receiving a location search query;

instructions for determining key words corresponding to the location search query;

instructions for determining one or more documents that correspond to the key words in the location search query; and

instructions for providing to a client system information identifying at least one location corresponding to the one or more documents.

20. A search engine system, comprising:

processing means for executing programs;

memory; and

a program, stored in the memory and executed by the processor, the program including;

instructions for receiving a location search query;

instructions for determining key words corresponding to the location search query;

instructions for determining one or more documents that correspond to the key words in the location search query; and

instructions for providing to a client system information identifying at least one location corresponding to the one or more documents.

21. A data structure stored in a memory, the data structure for use in performing location search queries, comprising:

a plurality of documents that correspond to geographic features, wherein a respective document in the plurality of documents includes location information and supplemental information, the location information including key words corresponding to one or more locations, one or more regions associated with the one or more locations, and synonyms for the key words, and wherein the supplemental information includes reference coordinates corresponding to the one or more locations.

22. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the reference coordinates include latitude and longitude for the one or more locations.

23. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the reference coordinates include regions surrounding the one or more locations, and wherein the regions being less than a pre-determined size.

24. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the data structure is compatible with a hypertext markup language (HTML).

25. The data structure of claim 21, wherein the location information in the respective document is insensitive to an order of terms in a location search query.

26. A graphical user interface comprising a map image of a region that is provided in response to a location search query, wherein the map image including two or more tags corresponding to two or more distinct locations in the region that have all terms associated with the location search query in common.

27. A graphical user interface comprising a map image of a region that is provided in response to a location search query, wherein the map image is centered on a location, and wherein the map image is provided independent of an order of terms associated with the location search query.