GEOSPATIAL SEARCH METHOD THAT PROVIDES FOR COLLABORATION
A computer-implemented method involving a user communicating with a search engine that is also accessible by other users, the method involving: receiving a search query from the user and causing the search query to be submitted to the search engine; on a display device operated by the computer, displaying a multi-dimensional representation of a spatial domain along with search results supplied by the search engine in response to the search query; and on the display device, also displaying other information about the spatial domain, said other information including an indication of how many other users have previously viewed a representation that includes that spatial domain.
1 . A computer-implemented method involving a user communicating with a search engine that is also accessible by other users, said method comprising:
receiving a search query from the user and causing the search query to be submitted to the search engine;
on a display device operated by the computer, displaying a multi-dimensional representation of a spatial domain along with search results supplied by the search engine in response to the search query; and
on the display device, also displaying other information about the spatial domain, said other information including an indication of how many other users have previously viewed a representation that includes that spatial domain or a subset thereof.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of how many other users have previously viewed a representation that includes that spatial domain is the number of the users who had previously viewed a representation that includes that spatial domain or a subset thereof during a predetermined time interval in the past.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed information also includes keywords that are relevant to that spatial domain.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the relevancy of the keywords to the spatial domain is determined at least in part by analyzing documents that refer to locations in the spatial domain.
5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the keywords relevant to the spatial domain includes words entered by other users when viewing the spatial domain or a portion thereof.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the search query from the user comprises a free text query input and wherein the displayed information also includes other words that are related to the free text query input.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the other words that are related to the free text query input are obtained at least in part by analyzing free text input from the other users.
8 . A computer-implemented method involving a user communicating with a search engine that is also accessible by other users, said method comprising:
receiving a search query from the user and submitting that search query to the search engine;
on a display device operated by the computer, displaying a multidimensional representation of a spatial domain along with search results supplied by the search engine in response to the search query; and
on the display device, also displaying other information about the spatial domain, said other information including a list of keywords relevant to the spatial domain.