SEARCH GUIDED BY LOCATION AND CONTEXT

• US 20170300579A1
• Filed: 12/28/2016
• Published: 10/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Flake, Gary, Gates, III, William H., Horvitz, Eric J., Goodman, Joshua T., Chaudhuri, Surajit J., Griffin, Trenholme J., Hurst-Hiller, Oliver, Moss, Kenneth A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,592,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

The subject disclosure pertains to web searches and more particularly toward influencing resultant content to increase relevancy. The resultant content can be influenced by reconfiguring a query and/or filtering results based on user location and/or context information (e.g., user characteristics/profile, prior interaction/usage temporal, current events, and third party state/context . . . ). Furthermore, the disclosure provides for query execution on at least a subset of designated web content, for example as specified by a user. Still further yet, a localized marketing system is disclosed that provides discount offers to users that match merchant criteria including proximity. A system for actively probing populations of users with different parameters and monitoring responses can be employed to collect data for identifying the best discounts and deadlines to offer to users to achieve desired results.

Claims

1. A web search system comprising the following computer-implemented components:

a search component that identifies relevant web content in accordance with a query;

a location component that limits content to a bounded region surrounding a present physical location of a user; and

a context component that filters the limited content based on user information.

2. The system of claim 1, the location component includes a determination component that automatically identifies the location of a user based on data provided by one or more sensors.

3. The system of claim 2, the one or more sensors receive or retrieve one or more of GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, proximity and acceleration data.

4. The system of claim 1, the location component includes a determination component that identifies at least one bounded region specified by the user.

5. The system of claim 1, the location component includes a determination component that determines a bounded region based at least in part on the query.

6. The system of claim 1, the user information identifies characteristics of the user including at least one of age, gender, ethnicity, education level and political affinity.

7. The system of claim 1, the user information includes maximum cognitive load or attention span that is employed to limit the amount of content provided at one time.

8. The system of claim 1, user information includes one of previous searches and selected content.

9. The system of claim 1, the context component filters the web content based on one of current events and temporal data.

10. The system of claim 1, the search engine component pushes advertisements that are near and relevant to a particular user based at least in part on the bounded region and the user information.

11. A method that facilitates interacting with web content comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

identifying a present physical location of a user; and

filtering a web search query based on a bounded region including an identified location and user information.

12. The method of claim 11, filtering the web search queries based one of more of user age, gender, education, ethnicity, religion, and political affiliation.

13. The method of claim 11, filtering the web search queries based on historical click through.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising filtering advertisements displayed with search results based on one or more of the identified location and user information.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a user-selected portion of a map that specifies the identified location.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining the identified location from the present geographical position of the user.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising adjusting the bounded area based on the query.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising limiting the number of results returned based on user tolerance.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising filtering search queries based on context.

20. A system to facilitated web-based search comprising:

a computer-implemented means for identifying a present location of a user;

a computer implemented means for limiting at least one of search queries, sources of advertisements and sources of content to the identified sources based on the location; and

a computer-implemented means for limiting the at least one of search queries, sources of advertisements and sources of content based on information about the user.