Temporal layers for presenting personalization markers on imagery

• US 8,584,013 B1
• Filed: 03/20/2007
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tveit, Amund
• Primary Examiner(s): Hur, Ece
• Application Number:
  US11/726,085
• Time in Patent Office: 2,429 Days
• Field of Search: 715/700, 715/745, 707/3
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A temporal layer containing personalization markers (e.g., placemarks) created by a user at a given time (or time period), can be combined with map imagery, allowing the user (or other users) to show only the personalization markers contained in the temporal layer. Temporal layers can be of arbitrary temporal or geographical size, fully or partially overlapping in time or space, split into smaller temporal layers, logically aligned or combined and/or continuous or non-continuous in time or space. Temporal layers can be stored in a repository where they can be searched and used by others. Temporal layers can be associated with search services (e.g., news search) or search histories (e.g., automatic temporal layers based on search history). A user'"'"'s personal profile can be compared with other users'"'"' personal profiles and the results of the comparison can be used to recommend temporal layers. Advertisements can be associated with temporal layers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first time, a search query input specifying a topic;

determining, by a data processing apparatus, a time span for the topic and a geographic area for the topic, the time span beginning at a start time that occurs prior to the first time and ending at an end time that occurs prior to the first time;

selecting one or more personalization markers from a plurality of personalization markers, each personalization marker corresponding to a respective event having an event time and an event location and including content description data, and wherein at least some of the personalization markers have respective event times not within the time span specified by the input, the selection based on each of the one or more personalization markers corresponding to a respective event and having a respective event time within the time span determined for the input, a respective event location within the geographic area determined for the input, and keywords from the content description data and query terms;

generating a temporal layer corresponding to the time span and the geographic area specified by the input, wherein the temporal layer is an overlay for imagery associated with the geographic area and represents an aggregation of the one or more personalization markers; and

providing the temporal layer including the one or more personalization markers for display on a device as an overlay for the imagery;

further comprising;

determining a user profile from the search query input, wherein each user profile is a data structure specifying temporal layers determined to be of interest to the user, each temporal layer specified by a geographic area and a time span;

comparing the user profile with other user profiles associated with a plurality of temporal layers to determine, for each other user profile, a similarity measure that is a measure of similarity of the user profile to the other user profile; and

identifying a temporal layers of the other user profiles, based on the similarity measure for the other user profile, for recommendation to a user of the user profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the temporal layer comprises searching a repository storing a plurality of temporal layers for one or more temporal layers associated with the time span and the geographic area.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining two or more temporal layers resulting from the search into a single temporal layer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the two or more temporal layers are non-continuous in time or space.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the two or more layers are overlapping in time or space.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein temporal or spatial boundaries of the temporal layer are determined statistically.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating an advertisement with the temporal layer; and

providing the advertisement with the temporal layer and the imagery for display on the device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal layer that is provided for display on the device includes a representation of each of the one or more personalization markers on the imagery relative to the respective event locations of the one or more personalization markers.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the imagery represents a map.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a temporal layer comprises generating the temporal layer by aggregating the one or more personalization markers.

8. A system comprising:

one or more data processors;

a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more data processors and including instructions, which, when executed by the one or more data processors, causes the one or more data processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at a first time, a search query input specifying a topic;

determining a time span for the topic and a geographic area for the topic, the time span beginning at a start time that occurs prior to the first time and ending at an end time that occurs prior to the first time;

selecting one or more personalization markers from a plurality of personalization markers, each personalization marker corresponding to a respective event having an event time and an event location and including content description data, and wherein at least some of the personalization markers have respective event times not within the time span specified by the input, the selection based on each of the one or more personalization markers corresponding to a respective event and having a respective event time within the time span determined for the input, a respective event location within the geographic area determined for the input, and keywords from the content description data and query terms;

generating a temporal layer corresponding to the time span and the geographic area specified by the input, wherein the temporal layer is an overlay for imagery associated with the geographic area and represents an aggregation of the one or more personalization markers; and

providing the temporal layer including the one or more personalization markers for display on a device as an overlay for the imagery;

further comprising;

determining a user profile from the search query input, wherein each user profile is a data structure specifying temporal layers determined to be of interest to the user, each temporal layer specified by a geographic area and a time span;

comparing the user profile with other user profiles associated with a plurality of temporal layers to determine, for each other user profile, a similarity measure that is a measure of similarity of the user profile to the other user profile; and

identifying a temporal layers of the other user profiles, based on the similarity measure for the other user profile, for recommendation to a user of the user profile.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein generating the temporal layer comprises searching a repository storing a plurality of temporal layers for one or more temporal layers associated with the time span and the geographic area.

10. The system of claim 8, further operable to perform operations comprising:

combining two or more temporal layers resulting from the search into a single temporal layer.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the two or more temporal layers are non-continuous in time or space.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the two or more layers are overlapping in time or space.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein temporal or spatial boundaries of the temporal layer are determined statistically.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

associating an advertisement with the temporal layer; and

providing the advertisement with the temporal layer and the imagery for display on the device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a first time, a search query input specifying a topic;

determining a time span for the topic and a geographic area for the topic, the time span beginning at a start time that occurs prior to the first time and ending at an end time that occurs prior to the first time;

selecting one or more personalization markers from a plurality of personalization markers, each personalization marker corresponding to a respective event having an event time and an event location and including content description data, and wherein at least some of the personalization markers have respective event times not within the time span specified by the input, the selection based on each of the one or more personalization markers corresponding to a respective event and having a respective event time within the time span determined for the input, a respective event location within the geographic area determined for the input, and keywords from the content description data and query terms;

generating a temporal layer corresponding to the time span and the geographic area specified by the input, wherein the temporal layer is an overlay for imagery associated with the geographic area and represents an aggregation of the one or more personalization markers; and

providing the temporal layer including the one or more personalization markers for display on a device as an overlay for the imagery;

further comprising;

determining a user profile from the search query input, wherein each user profile is a data structure specifying temporal layers determined to be of interest to the user, each temporal layer specified by a geographic area and a time span; and

further comprising;

comparing the user profile with other user profiles associated with a plurality of temporal layers to determine, for each other user profile, a similarity measure that is a measure of similarity of the user profile to the other user profile; and

identifying a temporal layers of the other user profiles, based on the similarity measure for the other user profile, for recommendation to a user of the user profile.

16. A system comprising:

means receiving, at a first time, a search query input specifying a topic and determining a time span for the topic and a geographic area for the topic, the time span beginning at a start time that occurs prior to the first time and ending at an end time that occurs prior to the first time;

means for selecting one or more personalization markers from a plurality of personalization markers, each personalization marker corresponding to a respective event having an event time and an event location and including content description data, and wherein at least some of the personalization markers have respective event times not within the time span specified by the input, the selection based on each of the one or more personalization markers corresponding to a respective event and having a respective event time within the time span determined for the input, a respective event location within the geographic area determined for the input, and keywords from the content description data and query terms;

means for generating a temporal layer corresponding to the time span and the geographic area specified by the input, wherein the temporal layer is an overlay for imagery associated with the geographic area and represents an aggregation of the one or more personalization markers; and

means for providing the temporal layer including the one or more personalization markers for display on a device as an overlay for the imagery;

further comprising;

determining a user profile from the search query input, wherein each user profile is a data structure specifying temporal layers determined to be of interest to the user, each temporal layer specified by a geographic area and a time span;

means for comparing the user profile with other user profiles associated with a plurality of temporal layers to determine, for each other user profile, a similarity measure that is a measure of similarity of the user profile to the other user profile; and

means for identifying a temporal layers of the other user profiles, based on the similarity measure for the other user profile, for recommendation to a user of the user profile.