Methods and apparatus for searching with awareness of geography and languages
A system that automatically discerning the best combinations of a user query's geographical origin and language, retrieving and displaying search results accordingly. A record on the system are associated with a geographic location and a language. A record could be composed of two or more records, each of which associates with a location and a language. A record could be in rich media format.
1. A method of providing records to a user, comprising:
identifying a set of different languages from an interaction of a user with a server;
automatically discerning a set of suspected geographical origins of the user from the interaction with the server;
finding a best combination of a language and a suspected geographical origin from the sets of languages and origins; and
using the best combination to guide retrieval of search results responsive to a query submitted to the server by the user, and to rank the search results.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising arranging the set of different languages in a language hierarchy.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising ranking the search results according to the language hierarchy.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising arranging the set of geographical origins in an origin hierarchy.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising ranking the search results according to the origin hierarchy.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the origin hierarchy comprises a level corresponding to a postal code.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising presenting the ranked results via a results display.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the display is disposed on a mobile communication device.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the step of discerning the set of suspected geographical origins includes obtaining Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates from the communication device.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search results comprise a first version and a second version of a single record.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first version and the second version comprise the same content, and are in two different languages.
12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising presenting the first and the second version of the single record to a user according to the set of languages.
13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising presenting the first and the second version of the single record to a user according to the set of origins.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising partitioning a records repository storing records from which the search results are retrieved.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the record repository comprises a partition storing advertisement records.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of using the best combination to guide retrieval of search results includes retrieving a single record comprising a combination of at least two other records.