SOCIALLY RELEVANT AND ACTIVITY AWARE LOCAL SEARCH
Techniques are provided for generating query results in response to a query that specifies a location, the query results comprising business entities located around the location that are spatially relevant and socially and/or activity relevant to the query. Web data is crawled and processed using natural language techniques to derive activity information for business entities. Query results are also generated in response to a query that specifies a location and an itinerary, the query results providing possible itineraries at or near the specified location.
1 - 33 . (canceled)
34 . A method comprising:
receiving a query regarding entities at a query location from web-based search engine on a user device;
generating, by a processor of a computing device, a list of query results in response to the query and the query location received from the web-based search engine, wherein each query result identifies an entity;
determining, for each query result, whether a category for the entity identified in the query result is a local category or a non-local category relative to the query location;
accessing a web-based social network to which the user belongs;
identifying, for each query result for which the entity identified in the query result is determined to be of the local category, a set of reviews for the entity identified in the query result from one or more selected reviewers, each selected reviewer being connected to the user in the social network within a user-specified degree of separation in connection and having a predetermined spatial relationship with the query location including being located within a predetermined radius of the query location;
ranking each query result based on a spatial relevance of the entity identified in the query result and based on the identified set of reviews for the entity from the one or more selected reviewers; and
providing the ranked query results to the user device.
35 . (canceled)
36 . The method of claim 34 , wherein the spatial relevance is computed based on a distance of the entity from the query location.
37 . (canceled)
38 . (canceled)
39 . (canceled)
40 . (canceled)
41 . The method of claim 34 , wherein the one or more reviewers are directly connected to the user in the social network.
42 . The method of claim 34 , wherein the category is indicated in the query result.
43 . The method of claim 34 , wherein determining the category for the entity includes determining a category of business from a term in the query result.
44 . (canceled)
45 . (canceled)
46 . (canceled)
47 . (canceled)
48 . (canceled)
49 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising:
weighting each review in the set of reviews based on a number of degrees of separation of the reviewer from the user in the social network.
50 . (canceled)
51 . (canceled)
52 . (canceled)
53 . A system comprising:
one or more memory devices arranged and configured to store executable code; and
one or more processors operably coupled to the one or more memory devices, the processors being arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system:
receives a query regarding entities at a query location from a web-based search engine on a user device;
generates a list of query results in response to the query and the query location received from the web-based search engine, wherein each query result identifies an entity;
determines, for each query result, whether a category for the entity identified in the query result is a local category or a non-local category relative to the query location;
accesses a web-based social network to which the user belongs;
identifies, for each query result for which the entity identified in the query result is determined to be of the local category, a set of reviews for the entity identified in the query result from one or more selected reviewers, each selected reviewer being connected to the user in a social network within a user-specified degree of separation in connection and having a predetermined spatial relationship with the query location including being located within a predetermined radius of the query location;
ranks each query result based on a spatial relevance of the entity identified in the query result and based on the identified set of reviews for the entity from the one or more selected reviewers; and
provides the ranked query results to the user device.
54 . The system of claim 53 , wherein the processors are arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system computes the spatial relevance based on a distance of the entity from the query location.
55 . The system of claim 53 , wherein the one or more reviewers are directly connected to the user in the social network.
56 . The system of claim 53 , wherein the category is indicated in the query result.
57 . The system of claim 53 , wherein the processors are arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system computes determines the category for the entity by determining a category of business from a term in the query result.
58 . The system of claim 53 , wherein the processors are arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system computes an activity relevance of the entity identified in the each query result.
59 . The method of claim 53 , wherein the processors are arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system weighs each review in the first set of reviews based on a number of degrees of separation of the reviewer from the user in the social network.
60 . A method comprising:
receiving a query regarding entities at a query location from a web-based search engine on a user device;
generating, by a processor of a computing device, a list of query results in response to the query and the query location received from the web-based search engine, wherein each query result identifies an entity;
accessing a web-based social network to which the user belongs;
identifying, for each query result, a set of reviews for the entity identified in the query result from one or more selected reviewers, each selected reviewer being connected to the user in the social network within a user-specified degree of separation in connection and having a predetermined spatial relationship with the query location including being located within a predetermined radius of the query location;
ranking each query result based on a spatial relevance of the entity identified in the query result and based on the identified set of reviews for the entity from the one or more selected reviewers; and
providing the ranked query results to the user device.
61 . The method of claim 60 , wherein the spatial relevance is computed based on a distance of the entity from the query location.
62 . The method of claim 60 , wherein the one or more reviewers are directly connected to the user in the social network.
63 . The method of claim 60 , wherein the category is indicated in the query result.
64 . The method of claim 60 , wherein determining the category for the entity includes determining a category of business from a term in the query result.
65 . The method of claim 60 , further comprising:
weighting each review in the set of reviews based on a number of degrees of separation of the reviewer from the user in the social network.
66 . The method of claim 60 , wherein the processors are arranged and configured to execute the code such that the system computes an activity relevance of the entity identified in the each query result.