Graph-Based Geographical Query Suggestion System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Interactive mapping systems face challenges in providing effective query suggestions that reduce user input time and offer relevant information, especially in highly-structured addressing systems, where existing solutions fail to suggest expanded geographical queries efficiently.
Innovation Solution
The method involves receiving characters input into a user interface, identifying nodes in a graph related to the input, calculating suggestion scores, ranking, and filtering candidate nodes based on geographic proximity and relationships to provide ranked lists of expanded query suggestions, which include entities not directly typed by the user.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the system provides query suggestions only after the entire query is submitted, then the system complexity is low, but the user input time is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary processing by building a graph structure of geographical entities and their relationships in advance, before any user query is submitted. This pre-computed graph enables the system to quickly identify related entities and generate expanded query suggestions as the user types each character, rather than waiting for complete query submission.
2Ease of operation
If the system suggests expanded geographical queries, then the user typing effort is decreased, but the calculation and filtering complexity is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different processing strategies to different parts of the query based on the user's typing progress. As the user types each character, the system locally updates the graph traversal to identify matching entities and their relationships, providing suggestions at each typing stage without requiring complete query submission. This localized processing reduces overall computational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the query processing into character-by-character steps, where each typed character triggers a graph traversal to identify related entities. This segmentation allows the system to provide incremental suggestions without processing the entire query at once, reducing the computational burden at each step.
3Loss of information
If the system provides expanded query suggestions with entities not directly typed, then the information relevance is improved, but the processing time is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-computes and stores the graph structure of geographical entities, their relationships, and metadata in advance. This preliminary action enables rapid retrieval and suggestion generation during user interaction, as the system only needs to traverse the pre-built graph rather than computing relationships from scratch for each query.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for provided expanded geographical query suggestions. In one aspect, a method includes receiving one or more characters input into a user interface. A node in a graph is identified based on the one or more received characters, in which the node represents an entity having a name whose prefix contains the one or more received characters. A candidate node is identified in the graph that is related to the identified node, wherein the candidate node represents an entity having a name whose prefix does not contain the one or more received characters. The name of the entity represented by the candidate node is provided as an expanded query suggestion.