Location-based application search

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10349205-B2
Application number	US-201514954384-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

A server computing system including a storage device and a processing device. The storage device storing application records including application attributes and location data indicating a geographic area associated with an application. The processing device configured to receive a search query comprising a search term, identify application records stored by comparing the search term with the application attributes, and determine a search location. The processing device also configured to: for each of the identified application records, compute a distance scoring feature based on a distance between the search location and the geographic area indicated in the application record and determine a relevance score for the application record based on the distance scoring feature; select download addresses from the application records based on the relevance scores; and transmit the download addresses to the client computing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A server computing system for searching applications, the server computing system comprising:
a network communication device;
a storage device storing an application data store that stores application records, each application record corresponding with an application, each application record comprising:
an application title of the application,
an application description of the application,
an application download address of the application, and
location data indicating a geographic area in which the application is available; and
a processing device in electronic communication with the network communication device, and the storage device, the processing device being configured to:
receive an application search query from a client computing device via the network communication device, the application search query comprising one or more search terms;
identify a first application record and a second application record stored in the application data store by comparing the one or more search terms in the application search query with the application titles and the application descriptions of the application records stored in the application data store;
determine a search location associated with the application search query, the search location comprising one or more of a location specified in the application search query or a location of the client computing device;
compute a first distance scoring feature based on a distance between the search location and a first geographic area indicated by first location data of the first application record;
determine a first score for the first application record based on the first distance scoring feature computed for the first application record;

compute a second distance scoring feature based on a distance between the search location and a second geographic area indicated by second location data of the second application record;
determine a second score for the second application record based on the second distance scoring feature computed for the second application record;
select application download addresses from the application records based on the first score and the second score; and
transmit the selected application download addresses to the client computing device via the network communication device,
wherein the processing device is further configured to determine location data for at least one of the application records by:
 determining an application usage time within the geographic area, the application usage time representing an amount of time that other client computing devices in the geographic area spend using the application;
 comparing the application usage time with an application usage time threshold; and
 including the geographic area in the location data in response to the application usage time being greater than the application usage time threshold.

2. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to determine the search location by identifying a location specified in the one or more search terms of the application search query.

3. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to determine the search location by identifying a location of the client computing device based on one or more of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the client computing device, a location of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) that the client computing device is using, or a location associated with a client computing device identifier (ID).

4. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to determine the first location data and the second location data from the application records based on locations of other client computing devices that have downloaded the application.

5. The server computing system of claim 4 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
determine an application download density in the geographic area;
compare the application download density in the geographic area with an application download density threshold; and
include the geographic area in the location data in response to the application download density in the geographic area exceeding the application download density threshold.

6. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to remove the geographic area from the location data based on other client computing devices, located within the geographic area, uninstalling the application.

7. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to determine location data for at least one of the application records by:
determining an application rating of the application within the geographic area;
comparing the application rating with an application rating threshold; and
including the geographic area in the location data in response to the application rating being greater than the application rating threshold.

8. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
compute a binary scoring feature, the binary scoring feature being set to one when the search location is inside the first geographic area of the first application record, the binary scoring feature being set to zero when the search location is outside the first geographic area of the first application record; and
determine the first score for the first application record based on the value of the binary scoring feature.

9. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the location data indicates the geographic area by including one or more of a coordinate indicating a center of the geographic area, a perimeter enclosing the geographic area, a zip code, a city name, a state name, a time zone, or a telephone area code.

10. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the geographic area is determined to be relevant to use of the application based on whether a particular function of the application is operational at a location corresponding to the location data.

11. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the geographic area is determined to be relevant to use of the application based on whether a function of the application is usable at a location corresponding to the location data.

12. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the geographic area is determined to be relevant to use of the application based on whether a majority of application functions are operable at a location corresponding to the location data.

13. The server computing system of claim 1 , wherein the geographic area is determined to be relevant to use of the application based on whether an application service is available at a location corresponding to the location data.

14. A method for searching applications at a server computing system, the method comprising:
storing, at a storage device of the server computing system, an application data store that stores application records, each application record corresponding with an application, each application record comprising:
an application title of the application,
an application description of the application,
an application download address of the application, and
location data indicating a geographic area in which the application is available;

receiving, by a processing device of the server computing system, an application search query from a client computing device via a network communication device of the server computing system, the application search query comprising one or more search terms;
identifying, by the processing d

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Glover Eric J
• Harris Michael
• Delli Santi James

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04L67/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L61/609

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F16/9537

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title

• H04W4/021 Primary

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title