SUGGESTIVE MEETING POINTS BASED ON LOCATION OF MULTIPLE USERS

• US 20090100037A1
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: SCHEIBE, Bernd
• Application Number:
  US11/872,494
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100037A1
• 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

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium are provided for suggesting meeting locations to multiple users based, at least in part, on their current locations. In one example, a method includes receiving location information associated with at least two users, determining a center location with respect to the received location information, causing a search for a meeting location based on the determined center location, and causing communication of the meeting location(s) to at least one of the users. The method may further include receiving search criteria, where the search includes searching point-of-interest locations based on the center location and filtering the search results based on the search criteria. The method may further include receiving or using additional context information in addition to location information, such as time of day, day of the week, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and the like, to filter or order the search results.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for suggesting a meeting location for a plurality of users, the method comprising:

receiving location information associated with at least two users;

determining a center location with respect to the received location information;

causing a search for a meeting location based on the determined center location; and

causing communication of the meeting location to at least one of the at least two users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving search criteria, the search further based on the search criteria.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and filtering the search results based on at least one search criteria.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and ordering the search results based on distance to the center location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving additional context information other than location, and filtering the search results based on the additional context information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple meeting locations are communicated to the at least two user devices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating a map to the at least one user, the map associated with the meeting location.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the center location based on travel speed of each of the multiple users.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing communication of a first set of meeting locations to at least two users;

receiving a selection of one of the set of meeting locations from at least one user and causing communication of a winning location to the at least two users based thereon.

10. A computer-implemented method for suggesting a meeting location for a plurality of users, the method comprising:

receiving a search request for a meeting location from a first user device;

receiving location information associated with the first user device and at least a second user device;

causing a search for a meeting location based on the search request and location information of the first and at least second user devices; and

causing communication of the meeting location to at least one of the first and at least second user devices.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving search criteria for the meeting location, the search further based on the search criteria.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and filtering the search results based on at least one search criteria.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and ordering the search results based on distance to the center location.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving additional context information other than location, and filtering the search results based on the additional context information.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising communicating a map to the at least one user, the map associated with the meeting location.

16. An apparatus for identifying a location based upon location information of multiple users, the apparatus comprising:

logic for receiving location information associated with multiple users;

logic for causing a search for a meeting location based on the location information of the multiple users; and

causing communication of the meeting location to at least one of the users.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising logic for determining a center location with respect the location information associated with the multiple users, wherein the search is based on the center location.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising logic for receiving at least one search criteria for the meeting location, the search further based on the received search criteria.

19. A computer-readable medium encoded with computer program instructions for performing a process, the process comprising:

receiving location information associated with at least two users;

determining a center location with respect to the received location information;

causing a search for a meeting location based on the determined center location; and

causing communication of the meeting location to at least one of the at least two users.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the process further comprises receiving search criteria for the meeting location.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and filtering the search results based on at least one search criteria.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein causing a search comprises causing a search for point-of-interest locations based on the center location and ordering the search results based on distance to the center location.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the process further comprises receiving additional context information other than location, and filtering the search results based on the additional context information.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein multiple meeting locations are communicated to the at least two user devices.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the process further comprises communicating a map to the at least one user, the map associated with the meeting location.