Resolving queries based on automatic determination of requestor geographic location

• US 7,774,342 B1
• Filed: 07/21/2008
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Virdy, Ajaipal Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): MYINT, DENNIS Y
• Application Number:
  US12/176,660
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 707/732
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Resolving a query term includes receiving at least one query term from a requestor and determining a geographic location of the requestor. The geographic location of the requestor may be determined by accessing an electronic information store containing a requestor profile including geographic information about the requestor, where the requestor profile is used by more than one program. The query term is resolved against electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether one or more matches exist and a result is generated that accounts for the geographic location of the requestor.

Claims

1. A method for resolving a query term, the method comprising:

receiving at least one query term from a requestor;

accessing, from electronic storage, a requestor profile including geographic information about the requestor;

determining a geographic location of the requestor based on the geographic information about the requestor included in the accessed requestor profile;

generating a list of search results for the received at least one query term by leveraging the geographic location of the requestor determined based on the geographic information about the requestor included in the accessed requestor profile, the list of search results including multiple results;

determining a number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term;

determining a number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the geographic location of the requestor;

based on the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term and based on the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the geographic location of the requestor, selecting from;

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the received at least one query term; and

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the geographic location of the requestor; and

in accordance with the selecting, facilitating display of at least a portion of the multiple results in the list of search results,

wherein ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the geographic location of the requestor includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on geographic proximity rather than subject matter relevancy.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the geographic location of the requestor includes beginning an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative geographic proximity of search results within the list.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the received at least one query term includes determining to begin an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative subject matter relevancy of search results within the list.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the received at least one query term includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on subject matter relevancy rather than geographic proximity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the requestor profile is accessed and used by a program configured to generate the list of search results and the requestor profile is accessed and used by a program configured to perform a function unrelated to generating search results.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the requestor profile comprises a preexisting requestor profile created for a purpose other than generating search results.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the geographic location of the requestor includes determining the geographic location of the requestor without soliciting geographic location information from the requestor for purposes of generating the search result.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the geographic location of the requestor includes determining a geocode based on the geographic location of the requestor and associating the geocode with the requestor.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising enabling the requestor to disable the geocode.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising filtering electronic information analyzed in generating the list of search results based on the geographic location of the requestor, wherein generating the list of search results includes resolving the query term against the filtered electronic information to determine whether one or more matches exist,

wherein filtering the electronic information includes selecting subcategories appropriate for the geographic location of the requestor.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising enabling the requestor to override the determined geographic location.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

enabling the requestor to change the geographic location of the requestor determined based on the geographic information about the requestor included in the accessed requestor profile to a different geographic location,

wherein generating the list of search results comprises generating a list of search results by leveraging the different geographic location of the requestor.

13. A method for ordering search results, the method comprising:

receiving at least one query term;

accessing a list of search results for the received at least one query term;

determining a geographic location corresponding to a user that submitted the at least one query term;

identifying a number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term;

identifying a number of the search results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

analyzing the identified number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term with respect to the identified number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

based on the analysis, determining whether the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is greater than or less than the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

conditioned on determining that the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is less than the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location, ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term greater than relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location; and

conditioned on determining that the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is greater than the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location, ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location greater than relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term; and

facilitating display of at least a portion of the search results in the list of search results.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location greater than relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on geographic proximity rather than subject matter relevancy.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein:

ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location greater than relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term includes beginning an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative geographic proximity of search results within the list.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein:

ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term greater than relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location includes determining to begin an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative subject matter relevancy of search results within the list.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein:

ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term greater than relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on subject matter relevancy rather than geographic proximity.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein determining the geographic location corresponding to the user that submitted the at least one query term includes determining the geographic location of the user without soliciting geographic location information from the user for purposes of generating the search results.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising filtering electronic information analyzed in generating the list of search results based on the geographic location of the user, wherein generating the list of search results includes resolving the query term against the filtered electronic information to determine whether one or more matches exist,

wherein filtering the electronic information includes selecting subcategories appropriate for the geographic location of the user.

20. A method for ordering search results, the method comprising:

receiving at least one query term from a requestor;

determining a geographic location of the requestor;

obtaining multiple search results based on the at least one query term; and

determining a ranking of the multiple search results that accounts for different possible relevancy situations by;

ranking the multiple search results based on closest proximity to the geographic location of the requestor, with the results having the closest proximity to the geographic location of the requestor being displayed first, when the search results include a high number of relevant results based on query term resolution, but of the search results obtained, there is a low relevancy to the geographic location of the requestor, and

ranking the multiple search results based on relevancy to the at least one query term, with the most relevant results based on the query term with the closest proximity to the geographic location of the requestor being displayed first, when the search results include a low number of relevant results based on query term resolution, but of the search results obtained, there is a high relevancy to the geographic location of the requestor.

21. A method for ordering search results, the method comprising:

receiving at least one query term;

accessing a list of search results for the received at least one query term;

determining a geographic location corresponding to a user that submitted the at least one query term;

identifying a number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term;

identifying a number of the search results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

analyzing the identified number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term with respect to the identified number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

based on the analysis, determining whether the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is greater than or less than the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location;

conditioned on determining that the number of the search results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is less than the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location, ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term greater than relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location; and

conditioned on determining that the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term is greater than the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the determined geographic location, ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location greater than relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term; and

facilitating display of at least a portion of the search results in the list of search results,

wherein ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term greater than relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location includes beginning an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative subject matter relevancy of search results within the list; and

wherein ordering the search results in the list of search results by weighting relevancy of the search results to the determined geographic location greater than relevancy of the search results to the received at least one query term includes beginning an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on a comparison of relative geographic proximity of search results within the list.

22. A method for resolving a query term, the method comprising:

receiving at least one query term from a requestor;

accessing, from electronic storage, a requestor profile including geographic information about the requestor;

determining a geographic location of the requestor based on the geographic information about the requestor included in the accessed requestor profile;

generating a list of search results for the received at least one query term by leveraging the geographic location of the requestor determined based on the geographic information about the requestor included in the accessed requestor profile, the list of search results including multiple results;

determining a number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term;

determining a number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the geographic location of the requestor;

based on the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the received at least one query term and based on the number of the multiple results that are highly relevant to the geographic location of the requestor, selecting from;

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the received at least one query term; and

ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the geographic location of the requestor; and

in accordance with the selecting, facilitating display of at least a portion of the multiple results in the list of search results,

wherein ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the geographic location of the requestor includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on geographic proximity rather than subject matter relevancy, and

wherein ordering the multiple results in the list of search results with an emphasis on relevancy of the multiple results with respect to the received at least one query term includes identifying a first search result on an ordered list of the multiple results based primarily on subject matter relevancy rather than geographic proximity.