Patent · US Active

Method and system to identify geographical locations associated with queries received at a search engine

US9384289B2 · kind B2 · utility

1Cited by
1References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 23, 2010
Grant dateJul 5, 2016
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 21, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06Q30/0277
  • WIPO fieldIT methods for management
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Techniques are provided for prediction locations of users that submit search queries. A query is received at a search engine. An inverted index is searched to identify one or more geographical locations associated with one or more terms of the received query. The inverted index lists a plurality of query terms and one or more geographical locations associated with each query term. Each geographic location that is associated with a listed query term in the inverted index is a determined location for at least one user previously having submitted the listed term in a search query. A geographical location is predicted for a user that submitted the received query based on the identified one or more geographical locations. In this manner, a location is predicted for the user based on similar queries previously submitted by users.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.