Map View Boundary Search for Business Location Discovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing search engines, including local search engines, often limit results to businesses within a certain distance of the map center, failing to provide relevant businesses located throughout the entire displayed geographic region, making it difficult for users to find desired entities beyond the central area.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that provides a digital map with adjustable boundaries, allowing users to redefine the search area, aggregates entity location information from multiple documents, and identifies relevant entities within the selected geographic region, providing visual representations of these entities on the map.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If local search engines limit results to businesses within a certain distance of the map center, then the search results are focused and easy to process, but the comprehensiveness of search results covering the entire map area is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the search area adaptable and changeable based on user interaction. The map boundaries are not fixed but can be dynamically adjusted when users zoom in or out, allowing the search area to expand or contract automatically. This resolves the contradiction by enabling the system to provide focused results when zoomed in while maintaining comprehensiveness when zoomed out, making both focused and comprehensive searching possible at different times.
2Quantity of substance
If search engines use the entire map view area for searching, then the comprehensiveness of search results is improved, but the precision of location-based relevance is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the search area based on the current map view boundaries. When users zoom in, the search area automatically contracts to maintain location-based relevance. When users zoom out, the search area expands to improve comprehensiveness. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to optimize for either precision or comprehensiveness depending on the user's current viewing context.
3Device complexity
If existing search interfaces only search around the map center point, then the device complexity remains simple, but the adaptability to user-defined search areas is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by making the map boundaries serve multiple functions. The same map view boundaries that display geographic information also automatically define the search area for business listings. This eliminates the need for separate search area selection mechanisms while providing user-defined search area flexibility. The system adapts to user needs by using the existing map view as the search boundary, achieving versatility without increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system aggregates entity location information from multiple documents distributed among multiple locations in a network. The system searches the entity location information to identify a first set of entities located within the entirety of a first geographic region selected by a user. The system provides a first digital map to the user via a network, the first digital map including the first geographic region and further including visual representations of the first set of identified entities and their associated geographic locations.