Entity display priority in a distributed geographic information system

• US 7,933,897 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2006
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jones, Michael T., Charaniya, Amin P., Ashbridge, Michael, McClendon, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): To; Baoquoc N
• Application Number:
  US11/548,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,658 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• 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: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

A system for ranking geospatial entities is described. In one embodiment, the system comprises an interface for receiving ranking data about a plurality of geospatial entities and an entity ranking module. The module uses a ranking mechanism to generate place ranks for the geospatial entities based on the ranking data. Ranked entity data generated by the entity ranking module is stored in a database. The entity ranking module may be configured to evaluate a plurality of diverse attributes to determine a total score for a geospatial entity. The entity ranking module may be configured to organize ranked entity data into placemark layers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented geographic information system (GIS), including a processor and memory, comprising:

a network interface to receive non-cartographic information about a plurality of geospatial entities, each geospatial entity having a geometry and located at a physical location, wherein the information is harvested from a plurality of websites, and wherein the information comprises an attribute of a description of the geospatial entity;

a database to store the non-cartographic information; and

a ranking module configured to prioritize the geospatial entities for display on a map using the non-cartographic information and according to a ranking mechanism.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises one of:

quality of information available about the geospatial entity and an attribute of a definition of the geospatial entity.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises an indicator of the geospatial entity'"'"'s popularity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises one of:

an age attribute, a stature attribute, and an importance attribute.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises a relationship of a geospatial entity to its place in a hierarchy of geospatial entities.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein an entity of the plurality of entities comprises a collection of geospatial objects and wherein the priority of the entity is determined responsive to a characteristic of the collection of geospatial objects.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein an entity of the plurality of entities comprises a geospatial entity defined in an on-line forum and wherein the ranking mechanism uses data generated in the on-line forum to determine the rank of the geospatial entity.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the ranking mechanism determines a geospatial entity'"'"'s priority from a combination of weighted data from a plurality of meta attributes of the geospatial entity.

9. A computer-implemented method for ranking geospatial entities, the method comprising:

receiving non-cartographic geospatial entity data, wherein the data is harvested from a plurality of websites and wherein the non-cartographic geospatial entity data comprises an attribute of a description of the geospatial entity and wherein each geospatial entity has a geometry and is located at a physical location;

evaluating attributes of geospatial entities included in the received non-cartographic geospatial entity data;

ranking the geospatial entities for display on a map based on the evaluation; and

storing the ranked geospatial entity data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-cartographic geospatial entity data comprises data generated in a community forum.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-cartographic geospatial entity data comprises data associated with a specific user and further comprising using the ranked geospatial entity data to generate a map for the specific user.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing the ranked geospatial entity data to a map system configured to generate a map that includes ranked geospatial entities and unranked geospatial entities.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising selecting geospatial entities to include in navigation instructions based on rankings of the geospatial entities.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising selecting a geospatial entity to associate with an advertising term based on the geospatial entity'"'"'s ranking.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing the ranked geospatial entity data to an application for generating a search result based on the ranked geospatial entity data.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein evaluating is performed responsive to user instructions for providing personalized geospatial entity rankings.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the user instructions comprise a weighting to be applied to an attribute of a geospatial entity identified in the non-cartographic geospatial entity data.

18. A system for ranking geospatial entities, the system comprising:

a network interface for receiving non-cartographic ranking data about a plurality of geospatial entities, each geospatial entity having a geometry and located at a physical location and the data harvested from a plurality of websites and wherein the data comprises an attribute of a description of the geospatial entity;

an entity ranking module for generating place ranks for geospatial entities for display on a map according to a ranking mechanism based on the ranking data; and

a database for storing ranked entity data generated by the entity ranking module.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the interface is configured to provide the ranked entity data to a requesting application.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the requesting application is a map server system configured to use the ranked entity data to generate a map including entities selected on the basis of place ranks.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the entity ranking module is hosted on the map server system.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the entity ranking module is configured to evaluate a plurality of diverse attributes to determine a total score for a geospatial entity.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the entity ranking module is configured to organize ranked entity data into placemark layers.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein each placemark layer corresponds to at least one of:

a level of detail, a density, an altitude, and an entity category.

25. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein to generate rankings for a plurality of geospatial entities the computer readable program code in the computer program product including;

computer readable program code to receive entity data that defines a plurality of geospatial entities, each geospatial entity having a geometry and located at a physical location, and non-cartographic ranking data harvested from a plurality of websites that describes the plurality of geospatial entities wherein the ranking data comprises an attribute of a description of the geospatial entity; and

computer readable program code to generate rankings for the geospatial entities, wherein the rankings are used to select which of the geospatial items to include in a map to be displayed on the client device.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising computer readable program code to store data about a user of the client device and wherein computer readable program code to generate rankings is configured to apply a ranking mechanism responsive to the user data.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the user data comprises user preferences about the relative weightings of attributes evaluated by the ranking engine.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the user data comprises a user defined geospatial entity.

29. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the user data comprises an indication of a user'"'"'s interest in a geospatial entity and wherein the ranking mechanism assigns a rankings premium to the geospatial entity based on the user'"'"'s interest.

30. A computer-implemented geographic information system (GIS), including a processor and memory, the system in communication with a map server system storing geographic information for a plurality of geospatial entities, the system comprising:

a network interface to receive non-cartographic information about a plurality of geospatial entities, each geospatial entity in the map server system having a geometry and located at a physical location, and wherein the non-cartographic information is harvested from a plurality of websites and comprises an attribute of a description of the geospatial entity;

a database to store the non-cartographic information for each geospatial entity; and

a ranking module configured, in response to a query for geospatial entities, to rank the geospatial entities responsive to the query using the non-cartographic information and according to a ranking mechanism.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises one of:

quality of information available about the geospatial entity and an attribute of a definition of the geospatial entity.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises an indicator of the geospatial entity'"'"'s popularity.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises one of:

an age attribute, a stature attribute, and an importance attribute.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the non-cartographic information further comprises a relationship of a geospatial entity to its place in a hierarchy of geospatial entities.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein an entity of the plurality of entities comprises a collection of geo spatial objects and wherein the priority of the entity is determined responsive to a characteristic of the collection of geospatial objects.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein an entity of the plurality of entities comprises a geospatial entity defined in an on-line forum and wherein the ranking mechanism uses data generated in the on-line forum to determine the rank of the geospatial entity.