METHOD OF OPERATING A NAVIGATION SYSTEM TO BLOCK UNWANTED ADVERTISEMENTS

1 . A computer implemented method of operating a navigation system to block advertising messages, the method comprising:

obtaining a spatially based advertising filtering parameter defining a portion of a geographic region;

identifying a current location of the navigation system;

obtaining an advertising message;

identifying a location of a business associated with the advertising message;

determining whether the location of the business is located outside of the portion of the geographic region defined by the spatially based advertising filtering parameter; and

if so, blocking a presentation of the advertising message.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the spatially based advertising filter parameter specifies an administrative district.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the spatially based advertising filter parameter specifies a distance from a current position of the navigation system.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the spatially based advertising filter parameter specifies a distance from a specified location.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the spatially based advertising filter parameter is defined by a user of the navigation system.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the advertising message includes an identifier of the business associated with the advertising message.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the advertising message includes an identifier of the location of the business associated with the advertising message.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein another filter parameter is category or temporally based.

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the advertising message is obtained without a request from the navigation system.

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the advertising message is obtained after a request from the navigation system.

11 . A navigation system comprising:

a processor,

a geographic database associated with the processor, and

an advertising filtering program executed on the processor, wherein the advertising filtering program blocks a presentation of an advertising message for a point of interest according to a filtering parameter.

12 . The navigation system of claim 11 wherein the filtering parameter includes at least one from a group comprising: a spatially based filter parameter, a category based filter parameter and a time based filter parameter.

13 . The navigation system of claim 12 wherein the spatially based filter parameter specifies a distance from a current position of the navigation system and the advertising message for the point of interest located a distance greater from the current position than the specified distance is blocked by the advertising filtering program.

14 . The navigation system of claim 11 wherein the filter parameter is defined by a user of the navigation system.

15 . The navigation system of claim 11 wherein the advertising message includes an identifier of the point of interest associated with the advertising message.

16 . The navigation system of claim 11 wherein the advertising message includes an identifier of the location of the point of interest associated with the advertising message.

17 . A method of operating a computer platform to block advertising messages, the method comprising:

obtaining a filtering parameter defining a spatial filter region;

obtaining an advertising message;

identifying a location of a business associated with the advertising message;

determining whether the location of the business is located outside the spatial filter region; and

if so, blocking a presentation of the advertising message.

18 . The method of claim 17 wherein the filter parameter is defined by a user of the computer platform.

19 . The method of claim 17 wherein another filter parameter is category or temporally based.

20 . The method of claim 17 wherein the advertising message is obtained with or without a request from the computer platform.