Viewport-relative scoring for location search queries

1. A computer-implemented method for performing a location search, comprising:

at a computer system including one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs, the one or more processors executing the one or more programs to perform the operations of:

receiving a location search query;

identifying geographical feature documents that satisfy the location search query, wherein each of the geographical feature documents correspond to a geographical feature; and

ranking the identified geographical feature documents in accordance with a score that is based, at least in part, on proximity of the geographical features corresponding to the identified geographical feature documents to a geographical viewport region of a client system, to produce a set of ranked geographical feature documents; and

providing results, in accordance with the ranked geographical feature documents, that identify at least one geographic feature corresponding to the at least one of the ranked geographical feature documents.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographical viewport region corresponds to a geographical region displayed on the client system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographical viewport region corresponds to a geographical region displayed on the client system in response to a prior location search query.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographical viewport region comprises a circular geographical region that encompasses a rectangular geographical region displayed on the client system.

5. The method of claim 4 , where the geographical viewport region has a size corresponding to a size of the rectangular geographical region displayed on the client system.

6. The method of claim 1 , including determining key words corresponding to the location search query, and identifying geographical feature documents that match the key words in the location search query;

wherein the determining of the key words includes removing punctuation marks and non-location terms from the location search query.

7. The method of claim 1 , including determining key words corresponding to the location search query, and identifying geographical feature documents that match the key words in the location search query;

wherein the key words include one or more synonyms for one or more terms in the location search query.

8. The method of claim 1 , including determining key words corresponding to the location search query, and identifying geographical feature documents that match the key words in the location search query;

wherein identifying the geographical feature documents includes determining a canonical expression corresponding to the key words.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geographical feature documents are in an index that includes a plurality of geographical feature documents that correspond to geographic features.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of geographical feature documents include reference coordinates corresponding to the geographic features.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the geographical feature documents includes determining a score for each of the geographical feature documents.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein providing results includes providing a single geographical feature or location if a best score for a corresponding geographical feature document is greater than a pre-determined multiple of a next best score for a next geographical feature document in a top-N ranking of the geographical feature documents.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing includes providing a map image corresponding to at least the one geographical feature.

14. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more central processing units to execute programs;

memory; and

one or more programs stored in the memory and executed by the processor, the one or more programs including:

instructions for receiving a location search query;

instructions for identifying geographical feature documents that satisfy the location search query, wherein each of the geographical feature documents correspond to a geographical feature;

instructions for ranking the identified geographical feature documents in accordance with a score that is based, at least in part, on proximity of the geographical features corresponding to the identified geographical feature documents to a geographical viewport region of a client system, to produce a set of ranked geographical feature documents; and

instructions for providing results, in accordance with the ranked geographical feature documents, that identify at least one geographic feature corresponding to the at least one of the ranked geographical feature documents.

15. A computer-implemented method for performing a location search, comprising:

at a computer system including one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs, the one or more processors executing the one or more programs to perform the operations of:

receiving a location search query;

identifying geographical features that satisfy the location search query;

ranking the identified geographical features in accordance with a score that is based, at least in part, on proximity of the geographical features to a geographical viewport region of a client system, to produce a set of ranked geographical features; and

providing results, in accordance with the ranked geographical features, that identify at least one geographic feature corresponding to the at least one of the ranked geographical features.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the geographical viewport region corresponds to a geographical region displayed on the client system.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the geographical viewport region corresponds to a geographical region displayed on the client system in response to a prior location search query.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the geographical viewport region comprises a circular geographical region that encompasses a rectangular geographical region displayed on the client system.

19. The method of claim 18 , where the geographical viewport region has a size corresponding to a size of the rectangular geographical region displayed on the client system.

20. The method of claim 15 , including:

determining key words corresponding to the location search query; and

identifying geographical features that match the key words in the location search query.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the determining of the key words includes any removing punctuation marks and any non-location terms from the location search query.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the key words include one or more synonyms for one or more terms in the location search query.

23. A search engine system, comprising:

one or more central processing units to execute programs;

memory; and

one or more programs stored in the memory and executed by the processor, the one or more programs including:

instructions for receiving a location search query;

instructions for identifying geographical features that satisfy the location search query;

instructions for ranking the identified geographical features in accordance with a score that is based, at least in part, on proximity of the geographical features to a geographical viewport region of a client system, to produce a set of ranked geographical features; and

instructions for providing results, in accordance with the ranked geographical features, that identify at least one geographic feature corresponding to the at least one of the ranked geographical features.