Method and system for presenting on-line “Yellow Pages”, particularly in association with location data

• US 7,702,652 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2003
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Whitmaps (Us) Foundation LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Twig, Ilan, Arad, Amit
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz; Apu M
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEN, TE Y
• Application Number:
  US10/734,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20040176974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,318 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 715/738, 715/810, 715/855, 705/26, 705/14, 701/120, 701/201, 701/207, 701/209, 434/130
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A method for doing business, wherein a web server maintains a commercial subscriber database including a plurality of records each containing data relating to commercial subscribers including at least name, address and category, and imposes a periodic subscription fee on at least some of the commercial subscribers. On receiving from a client machine connected thereto a request to download data relating to at least one specified category of commercial subscriber, it extracts from the commercial subscriber database respective records and sends to the client machine for display thereby, allows receipt of an update from one or more commercial subscribers in respect of substitute or supplementary data to that contained in the respective database record of the commercial subscribers, and updates the commercial subscriber database as required.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising a processor and a computer-readable storage device storing a computer program that, if executed, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising:

storing geographical map data and data pertaining to commercial enterprises, said geographical map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area;

receiving from a user client a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises; and

providing said user client with a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to the commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable said user client to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and render navigable areas within said geographical area without requiring new map data to be provided to the user client, wherein

a level of visibility of each enterprise representation in said image is determined according to at least one selection criterion.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein a subset of said geographical map data is provided by said server along with said data pertaining to a plurality of commercial enterprises.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said subset includes information for superimposing each of said representations over said geographical map data.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said subset includes businesses related content.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said at least one selection criterion forms a part of a user-specific profile.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein said user-specific profile is generated by said server according to information provided from said user client.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said image further displays commercial at enterprise-related information for each of said representations.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein said commercial enterprise-related information is provided to said user client by said server as various layers of in formation.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein said commercial enterprise-related information is updated dynamically by said server.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said server is further capable of providing said user with information relating to a group of commercial enterprises.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said server is also capable of managing an affiliation of said user to consumer clubs associated with at least one of said commercial enterprises.

12. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising periodically receiving from at least one of said commercial enterprises information relating thereto.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said selection criterion includes relevancy of the one or more representations.

14. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of at least one of a graphical display size, color or animation of each of the one or more representations.

15. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said server is capable of enabling bidirectional communication between said user client and at least one of said commercial enterprises.

16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said at least one selection criterion is a subscription fee paid by at least one of said commercial enterprises.

17. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said subset includes advertised content.

18. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of a color of each of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises.

19. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said level of visibility is a function of an animation of each of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises.

20. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said at least one selection criterion is geographical location.

21. The computer system of claim 1, wherein each of said representations is positioned in said image according to its respective location on said map image.

22. In a system comprising a processor and memory, a computerized geographic-mapping method comprising:

storing in said memory geographical map data with data pertaining to commercial enterprises located at geographical locations represented by said geographical map data, said geographical map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area;

receiving by said system a search result responsive to a search request for at least one commercial enterprise category, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data; and

in response thereto, automatically transmitting to a remote client machine indicia of enterprise locations included in the search result, said indicia sufficient to enable a display device at the remote client machine to display graphical indicators of said subset superimposed on a geographical map and render navigable areas within said geographical area without requiring new map data to be transmitted to the remote client machine, the locations of the graphical indicators being within a geographic area defined by said geographical map data.

23. The method according to claim 22 wherein each of said graphical indicators is shown at one of a plurality of levels of visibility.

24. A computer system comprising a server and a computer-readable storage device storing a computer program that, if executed, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising:

storing data pertaining to commercial enterprises;

maintaining a database of layers of geographical map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of said geographic area, each layer providing progressively more detail when displayed at a client display;

receiving a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises;

providing data a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable the client display to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server, wherein

a level of visibility of each enterprise representation is determined according to at least one selection criterion.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein said layers of geographical map data comprises minimized vector format data.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein said minimized vector format data comprises minimal sorted groups, each of said minimal sorted groups comprising a map object and an object type.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein said map data comprises descriptive information in text format.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein said layers of geographical map data comprise groupings of map objects.

29. A computer device comprising a processor and a computer-readable storage device storing a computer program that, if executed, causes the computer device to perform operations comprising:

sending to a map server a request for map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area and comprising at least two layers, each layer providing progressively more detail to be displayed at the computer device;

sending to the map server a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises;

receiving a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to the commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable said computer device to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server, wherein

a level of visibility of each commercial enterprise of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises in said image is determined according to at least one selection criterion; and

displaying at least part of said image on a user interface of the computer device.

30. The device of claim 29, further comprising receiving navigation commands and responding thereto by displaying different parts of the map image without downloading new map data from the map server.

31. A method for downloading map data from a map server to a computer device, the method comprising:

sending from the computer device to a map server a request for map data, said map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area and comprising at least two layers, each layer providing progressively more detail to be displayed at the computer device;

sending from the computer device to the map server a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises;

receiving at the computer device a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to the commercial enterprises and said geographical map data wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable said computer device to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and allow a user to navigate within said geographic area without requiring new map data to be downloaded from the map server, wherein

a level of visibility of each commercial enterprise of said data pertaining to commercial enterprises in said image is determined according to at least one selection criterion; and

displaying at least part of said image on a user interface of the computer device.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising receiving navigation commands and responding thereto by displaying different parts of the map image without downloading new map data from the map server.

33. A tangible computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, if executed by a system, cause the machine to perform a system comprising:

storing geographical map data and data pertaining to commercial enterprises, said geographical map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area;

receiving from a user client a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises; and

providing said user client with a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to the commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable said user client to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and render navigable areas within said geographical area without requiring new map data to be provided to the user client, wherein

a level of visibility of each enterprise representation in said image is determined according to at least one selection criterion.

34. A system for providing information related to commercial enterprises, comprising:

means for storing geographical map data and data pertaining to commercial enterprises, said geographical map data representative of at least one map image of a geographic area;

means for receiving from a user client a search request pertaining to at least one of the commercial enterprises; and

means for providing said user client with a search result responsive to said search request, the search result comprising a subset of said data pertaining to the commercial enterprises and said geographical map data, wherein

the subset of geographical map data is optimized into one or more minimal-sorted groups and compressed into data packets, the data packets Comprising information for restoring said subset of geographical map data,

said search result sufficient to enable said user client to instantiate an image including one or more representations based on said subset superimposed over a map image of a geographic area represented by said geographical map data and render navigable areas within said geographical area without requiring new map data to be provided to the user client, wherein

a level of visibility of each enterprise representation in said image is determined according to at least one selection criterion.