The application describes a system that allows mobile devices to receive the results of search queries tied to a specific geographical location, and also presents icons on a graphic display map that relate to those search responses. It also ties the search results to other functions of the mobile device.
Google’s patent application lists a wide range of possible functions that could be attached to mobile search capability, suggests with specificity how search results could be displayed on mobile devices, and describes ways in which the returned data could be tied to other functions of the mobile device.
Once displayed on a mobile device’s screen, search result data could be utilized directly by, for example, a “click-to-call selection for a telephone number associated with the first search result,” or a directions selection that when selected “provides directions to a location associated with the first search result.”
Google’s patent application also delves at great length into the way in which mobile search data could be displayed on mobile devices, including how maps could be displayed, the means by which users could rotate and scroll across such maps, and describes “push pin” style icons that will represent search results on mobile device map displays.
The patent application suggests a very flexible mobile search method, wherein users have the option of providing location details on their own, or, in devices enabled to do so, rely on GPS features of the device to automatically supply the user’s location.
“The user may enter a search request that includes location information, such as a zip or area code or other information such as ‘hotels near JFK’ or ‘pizza in SF’,” a Google representative said. “In such a situation, the server that receives the request will parse out and identify the location information, and the search will be conducted around that location.”
In other instances, users might enter a search request without providing location information. When this is the case, the search may be conducted within the area of a map that is already displayed on the device when the search is performed, or could be based on a predefined “centerpoint.”
The patent application also states, "A location may be assigned for a user to be applied across all searches, or a location may be determined by the device, such as through GPS measurement.”
Google’s application also accounts for the challenge of displaying search results on the small screens found on mobile devices, and how to provide the same manner of data to mobile search users that they would expect to find if conducting their search via a desktop PC with a much larger display.
Noting that mobile devices come in small sizes with a limited number of input keys, Google’s patent application observes, “It may be preferable only to display a smaller number of results on a map at a time to provide for easier viewing and interaction by a user.”