Comments on: How Search Engines May Look at Queries Which Include Locations http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378 Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services, Consulting, and Research Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:24:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: jason galanis http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-41116 jason galanis Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:34:34 +0000 http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-41116 geographic identifiers are a critical component of targeted services and targeted advertising. without geograhy information, web advertising loses much of its fundamental advantage of traditional media company by losing the ability to target the consumer. geospatial data is already being incorporated into almost all searches in one form or another and the trend is accelerating exponentially. this is why MSFT and others are attempting to patent geographic processes. MSFT actually appears to be aggressively taking on the issue to provide a competitive advantage over google. MSFT, however, is late to the game. an inventor filed a patent in January 1996 for 'geographic search'. US Patent No. 5,930,474 was granted in 1999. MSFT has cited 5,930,474 at least three times as prior art in their patents. seems MSFT will need to license (or buy) this patent to prevent infringement claims. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5930474&id=mWcpAAAAEBAJ&dq=5930474 geographic identifiers are a critical component of targeted services and targeted advertising. without geograhy information, web advertising loses much of its fundamental advantage of traditional media company by losing the ability to target the consumer. geospatial data is already being incorporated into almost all searches in one form or another and the trend is accelerating exponentially. this is why MSFT and others are attempting to patent geographic processes. MSFT actually appears to be aggressively taking on the issue to provide a competitive advantage over google. MSFT, however, is late to the game. an inventor filed a patent in January 1996 for ‘geographic search’. US Patent No. 5,930,474 was granted in 1999. MSFT has cited 5,930,474 at least three times as prior art in their patents. seems MSFT will need to license (or buy) this patent to prevent infringement claims.

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5930474&id=mWcpAAAAEBAJ&dq=5930474

]]> By: William Slawski http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23939 William Slawski Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:27:26 +0000 http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23939 Hi Barry, I've been trying to test live.com to see if it looks like they are presently using this, and I'm not sure that they are. The results I get for a search of something like "restaurants around space needle" don't seem to be returning anything more than keyword matchup results, without recognizing that I'm more interested in restaurants than I am in pages that include the phrase "space needle" in them. Then again, Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com aren't serving anything better in response to such a query. I do like the idea of addressing and understanding a location intent, and having a search engine being able to respond to that type of query in normal search results. I don't know how to identify the location around the space needle, to get meaningful responses to my query in local search. At this point, the Yahoo Trip Planner that I wrote about a couple of days ago might be the best way to find <a href="http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2747105-space_needle_seattle-i;_ylt=AkHuXjDkvaMJ39QPXoL2CjObItAF" rel="nofollow">restaurants near the Space Needle</a>. But even that doesn't make it easy to find specific locations around a well known landmark (getting to the Space needle page meant finding it on someone else's travel journal first.) Hi Barry,

I’ve been trying to test live.com to see if it looks like they are presently using this, and I’m not sure that they are. The results I get for a search of something like “restaurants around space needle” don’t seem to be returning anything more than keyword matchup results, without recognizing that I’m more interested in restaurants than I am in pages that include the phrase “space needle” in them.

Then again, Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com aren’t serving anything better in response to such a query. I do like the idea of addressing and understanding a location intent, and having a search engine being able to respond to that type of query in normal search results.

I don’t know how to identify the location around the space needle, to get meaningful responses to my query in local search. At this point, the Yahoo Trip Planner that I wrote about a couple of days ago might be the best way to find restaurants near the Space Needle. But even that doesn’t make it easy to find specific locations around a well known landmark (getting to the Space needle page meant finding it on someone else’s travel journal first.)

]]> By: Local Search Will Be Huge | BPWrap http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23937 Local Search Will Be Huge | BPWrap Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:06:01 +0000 http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23937 [...] This is not to say that it’s easy. William Slawski has an interesting post on a Microsoft patent that illustrates the complexity. For example, most searchers for Kentucky Fried Chicken are not looking for it in Kentucky. Such efforts are undoubtedly the smallest tip of the iceberg of effort that is going in to get the winning solution. Donna Bogatin in the earlier reference questioned whether Google would be the winner in this race, and indeed it’s not obvious. Google may be the best at cataloguing the cyber-universe, but that isn’t needed when you come down to local search. [...] [...] This is not to say that it’s easy. William Slawski has an interesting post on a Microsoft patent that illustrates the complexity. For example, most searchers for Kentucky Fried Chicken are not looking for it in Kentucky. Such efforts are undoubtedly the smallest tip of the iceberg of effort that is going in to get the winning solution. Donna Bogatin in the earlier reference questioned whether Google would be the winner in this race, and indeed it’s not obvious. Google may be the best at cataloguing the cyber-universe, but that isn’t needed when you come down to local search. [...]

]]> By: Barry Welford http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23935 Barry Welford Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:06:51 +0000 http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=378#comment-23935 Just another confirmation, Bill, if such were needed of the importance of Local Search to the majors. Live seems to be the weakest of the four (now including Ask City), but concepts such as this may help them beef up what they offer. Just another confirmation, Bill, if such were needed of the importance of Local Search to the majors. Live seems to be the weakest of the four (now including Ask City), but concepts such as this may help them beef up what they offer.

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