U.S. patent application number 10/232401 was filed with the patent office on 2003-01-30 for on-line geographical directory.
This patent application is currently assigned to Super Internet Site System Pty Ltd.. Invention is credited to Knorr, John.
Application Number | 20030023586 10/232401 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 3820101 |
Filed Date | 2003-01-30 |
United States Patent
Application |
20030023586 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Knorr, John |
January 30, 2003 |
On-line geographical directory
Abstract
A method of categorizing businesses, organizations and
individuals in order to facilitate geographically-based searching
over the Internet, includes the steps of: (a) registering in a
database the names of business, organizations and/or individuals;
(b) for each name entry, registering a geographical location
identifier; and (c) for each name entry, optionally registering
further information such as address, telephone number, and
information about the goods or services offered by the business,
organization or individual; wherein each geographical location
identifier indicates the precise geographical location at which the
business, organization or individual is located.
Inventors: |
Knorr, John; (Emerald,
AU) |
Correspondence
Address: |
OLIFF & BERRIDGE, PLC
P.O. BOX 19928
ALEXANDRIA
VA
22320
US
|
Assignee: |
Super Internet Site System Pty
Ltd.
Emerald
AU
|
Family ID: |
3820101 |
Appl. No.: |
10/232401 |
Filed: |
September 3, 2002 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10232401 |
Sep 3, 2002 |
|
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PCT/AU01/00221 |
Mar 2, 2001 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
707/999.003; 707/E17.11 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20130101;
Y10S 707/918 20130101; Y10S 707/919 20130101; G06F 16/9537
20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/3 |
International
Class: |
G06F 007/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Mar 3, 2000 |
AU |
PQ5997 |
Claims
1. A method of categorising and searching for businesses,
organizations and individuals in a geographically-based manner over
the Internet, including the steps of: (a) registering in a database
the names of businesses, organizations and/or individuals; (b) for
each name entry, registering a geographical location identifier;
the geographical location identifier indicating the precise
geographical location at which the corresponding business,
organization or individual is located; and (c) for each name entry,
optionally registering further information such as address,
telephone number, and information about the goods or services
offered by the business, organization or individual; (d) the user
nominating a catchment area by reference to one or more
geographical points; and (e) searching the database to identify
name entries within the catchment area nominated by the user.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein each geographical location
identifier corresponds to: (i) a precise point of latitude and
longitude where the business, organization or individual in
question occupies a small area of land, or (ii) an area of points
of latitude and longitude where the business, organization or
individual occupies a larger amount of land.
3. A method according to any preceding claim wherein the database
operates in conjunction with a secondary database of known street
addresses and geographical co-ordinates such that, when a new name
is entered in the database, a geographical location identifier is
provided for that name by entering a street address for the name,
which the secondary database can use to provide geographical
co-ordinates for the name.
4. A method according to claim 3 wherein there are numerous
databases at a number of Internet sites located in different
countries or regions, each of the Internet sites containing
information relevant to businesses, organizations and/or
individuals in its country or region.
5. An Internet site for facilitating geographically-based searching
by a user over the Internet, including: (a) a database having the
names of businesses, organizations and/or individuals; (b) the
database further having a geographical location identifier for each
name entry; each geographical location identifier indicating the
precise geographical location at which the business, organization
or individual is located; wherein the database is searched from the
Internet site by having the user nominate a geographical catchment
area to allow for searching of businesses, organizations and/or
individuals located within the geographical catchment area.
6. An Internet site according to claim 5 wherein each geographical
location identifier corresponds to: (i) a precise point of latitude
and longitude where the business, organization or individual in
question occupies a small area of land, or (ii) an area of points
of latitude and longitude where the business, organization or
individual occupies a larger amount of land.
7. An Internet site according to claim 5 wherein the database
operates in conjunction with a secondary database of known street
addresses and geographical co-ordinates such that, when a new name
is entered in the database, a geographical location identifier is
provided for that name by entering a street address for the name,
which the secondary database can use to provide geographical
co-ordinates for the name.
8. An Internet site according to claim 5 further including a search
engine which allows an Internet user to conduct a search of the
database to find all entries matching user-specified criteria
located within a user-specified distance from a user-specified
point.
9. A method of categorising items in order to facilitate
information retrieval by a user, including the steps of: (a)
registering in a database the identity of the item; (b) for each
item, optionally registering further information about the item;
and (c) registering in the database a spatial co-ordinate
identifier corresponding to the location of each item wherein each
spatial co-ordinate indicates the precise spatial location
identifier of the entity at which the item is located; (d) the user
nominating a geographical catchment area by reference to one or
more geographical points; wherein when the database is searched by
the user, the search is conducted on a sub-set of the database
which consists of items located within the geographical catchment
area.
10. A method according to claim 9 wherein when the item in question
is defined by co-ordinates specified relative to each one of three
dimensions.
11. A method according to claim 9 wherein when the item in question
is defined by an area of spatial co-ordinates, each spatial
co-ordinate being specified as relative to each one of three
dimensions.
12. A method according to claim 9 wherein the item in question is
defined by a volume of spatial co-ordinates, each spatial
co-ordinate being specified as relative to each one of three
dimensions.
13. A method of delivering geographically based advertising over
the Internet, including the steps of: (a) registering in a database
one or more goods or services being offered by one or more
advertisers; (b) for each good or service offered by the
advertiser, registering an advertiser geographical area indicating
the area in which the advertiser wishes to receive customers; (c)
determining a geographical location identifier from the user, being
the precise geographical location of the Internet user; (d)
displaying to the Internet user an advertisement, the advertisement
displayed being selected from one or more advertisements for goods
or services wherein the geographical location of the Internet user
is within the advertiser geographical area corresponding to one or
more of the goods or services presented in the advertisement.
14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the advertiser
geographical area is specified by precise points of latitude and
longitude.
15. A method according to claim 13 or 14 wherein the geographical
location identifier is specified by a precise point of latitude and
longitude.
16. A method according to any one of claim 13 to 15 wherein the
Internet user supplies information including their Internet user
geographical location identifier.
Description
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to an on-line geographical or spatial
directory. It also relates particularly but not exclusively to a
method of categorising items in order to facilitate information
retrieval. It further relates particularly but not exclusively to a
method and system for indexing information so that Internet users
may locate relevant information according to geographical or
spatial location. It also relates particularly but not exclusively
to a method and system of delivering geographically based
advertising over the Internet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Over the past decade, the Internet has become a source of a
vast amount of information. Unfortunately, there is no agreed
method of indexing or categorisation, so that it is very difficult
to identify and locate most of the information which may be
relevant to a particular query. Two of the most common ways of
locating relevant information on the Internet are to locate a URL
in a printed publication or television advertisement and to enter
it into a web browser to "visit" the URL and obtain the desired
information, or to use one of the many Internet search engines.
[0003] The Internet search engines typically maintain indices based
on key words which appear on web pages. When some key words are
typed into a search engine, the search engine produces a list of
hypertext links to documents having those key words. This is a good
way of finding some general information on a particular subject,
but it is not an effective way of finding all relevant
information.
[0004] There are advantages and disadvantages to doing business on
the Internet. One advantage is that the Internet provides rapid and
inexpensive access to an enormous number of different potential
customers. This is particularly useful when a business involves
selling items such as books or CDs, which have universal appeal and
are non-perishable and relatively inexpensive to ship to anywhere
in the world. A disadvantage is that the Internet is less suitable
for businesses which have a more local customer base, because it
does not provide easy ways of targeting local customers. Similarly,
many customers have difficulty in identifying Internet businesses
are within their geographical location. For example, a pizza shop
might have a customer base located exclusively within a 5 km
radius, but an Internet search on "pizza shops" might bring up
thousands of such shops from all round the world, so that shops in
the relevant geographical location are lost amongst the large
number of irrelevant ones.
[0005] Indeed, the majority of businesses and organizations have a
geographically defined constituency, and are not therefore
inherently suited to the presently available Internet search
engines. Some search engines such as Altavista allow a search to be
confined to a particular country, and Yahoo goes further, allowing
a search to be restricted according to country, state and city.
However, in many cases, a restriction to a particular city is still
not enough. In the case of a pizza shop, a list of all pizza shops
in a particular city would still contain far too many shops which
were not within a 5 km radius of the potential customer.
[0006] One way for a person to attempt to overcome this problem
when using an Internet search engine is to use the locality of the
particular business as a key word. Thus, the person might type
"Pizza Shop Preston" into the search engine. However, this is still
unsatisfactory because all relevant pizza shops may not have used
the locality name "Preston" as a key word on their Internet web
sites, and relevant shops in neighbouring locations will not be
located. Further, there may be multiple localities throughout the
world with the same locality name. For example, there are
approximately thirty eight localities which have the name "Preston"
in the United States.
[0007] An attempt has been made to address this problem in U.S.
Pat. No. 5,930,474, which relates to an Internet organiser for
accessing geographically and topically based information. The
organiser disclosed in that patent essentially requires the
breaking down of a city into various localities, and the
compilation of "locality guides" for the localities, with each
business being listed in a particular locality guide. This is
useful to some extent, in a similar manner to a neighbourhood
telephone directory. However, it still has numerous shortcomings.
It fails to distinguish between different types of goods and
services for which different locality sizes are appropriate. For
example, a person may only be prepared to travel up to 2 km to do
the daily grocery shopping, but may be prepared to travel up to 20
km to purchase an item of furniture. A builder of a major project
might be happy to have pre-mixed concrete delivered within a
maximum of 20 km due to the perishable nature of the product. On
the other hand prefabricated steelwork can be transported hundreds
of kilometers without deterioration and without a major cost
disadvantage. Further, a business classified as being just within
the borders of a particular locality may by that classification
miss out on business which it might otherwise have gained from a
nearby customer who is classified as residing just within the
border of an adjoining locality.
[0008] An object of the present invention is to overcome of
alleviate one or more of the problems present in the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there
is provided a method of categorising businesses, organizations and
individuals in order to facilitate geographically-based searching
over the Internet, including the steps of:
[0010] (a) registering in a database the names of businesses,
organizations and/or individuals;
[0011] (b) for each name entry, registering a geographical location
identifier; and
[0012] (c) for each name entry, optionally registering further
information such as address, telephone number, and information
about the goods or services offered by the business, organization
or individual;
[0013] wherein each geographical location identifier indicates the
precise geographical location at which the business, organization
or individual is located.
[0014] The geographical location identifier may be any suitable
type of identifier. In one suitable arrangement, each geographical
location identifier corresponds to:
[0015] (i) a precise point of latitude and longitude where the
business, organization or individual in question occupies a small
area of land, or
[0016] (ii) an area of points of latitude and longitude where the
business, organization or individual occupies a larger amount of
land.
[0017] In a particularly preferred arrangement, the database
operates in conjunction with a secondary database of known street
addresses and geographical coordinates such that, when a new name
is entered in the database, a geographical location identifier is
provided for that name by entering a street address for the name,
which the secondary database can use to provide geographical
co-ordinates for the name.
[0018] In a preferred arrangement, there are numerous databases at
a number of Internet sites located in different countries or
regions, each of the Internet sites containing information relevant
to businesses, organizations and/or individuals in its country or
region.
[0019] According to a second aspect of the invention, there is
provided an Internet site for facilitating geographically-based
searching over the Internet, including:
[0020] (a) a database having the names of businesses, organizations
and/or individuals;
[0021] (b) the database further having a geographical location
identifier for each name entry;
[0022] wherein each geographical location identifier indicates the
precise geographical location at which the business, organization
or individual is located.
[0023] In one arrangement, each geographical location identifier
corresponds to:
[0024] (i) a precise point of latitude and longitude where the
business, organization or individual in question occupies a small
area of land, or
[0025] (ii) an area of points of latitude and longitude where the
business, organization or individual occupies a larger amount of
land.
[0026] In another arrangement, the database operates in conjunction
with a secondary database of known street addresses and
geographical co-ordinates such that, when a new name is entered in
the database, a geographical location identifier is provided for
that name by entering a street address for the name, which the
secondary database can use to provide geographical co-ordinates for
the name.
[0027] The Internet site preferably further includes a search
engine which allows an Internet user to conduct a search of the
database to find all entries matching user-specified criteria
located within a user-specified distance from a user-specified
point. Thus, for example, a person can use the search engine to
locate all grocery stores within a 2 km radius of his or her house,
or to locate all furniture stores within a 20 km radius. As a
further example, a person visiting an unfamiliar city might use the
system to locate the closest hotel to a particular place of
business.
[0028] It will readily be appreciated that the system can be used
for almost any type of geographical or spatial searching and
accordingly the invention is not limited to those so far listed.
The system may search from any point within any predetermined
distance. For example, the system may search within a specified
distance of a particular object such as a road or coastline. The
system may also search by drawing an area on the map, preferably
with a mouse, and searching that area. Another alternative method
of searching is by nominating various points and searching the area
contained within those points, these points may be defined by
particular objects such as roads.
[0029] If the Internet site is programmed with various different
types of geographical boundaries such as council boundaries, postal
area boundaries and electoral district boundaries, and different
geographical features such as streets, shopping centres and public
facilities, a user can perform numerous different types of searches
such as:
[0030] "Find all the scout halls in the municipality of X"
[0031] "Find the nearest Post Office"
[0032] "Find all the cake shops in X Street"
[0033] "Find all the shops that sell X brand shoes in Y shopping
centre"
[0034] There are numerous different ways in which the method and
database system of the invention can be used to generate revenue.
Businesses and organizations can make a payment in order to be
listed in the database. Persons undertaking a search can be charged
a fee for the search. Alternatively, revenue can be generated
through advertising on the search engine site and on search results
pages. In order to increase the effectiveness of advertising, the
subject matter of advertisements can be varied to accord with the
subject matter of searches being made.
[0035] According to a third aspect of the invention, there is
provided a method of categorising items in order to facilitate
information retrieval, including the steps of:
[0036] (a) registering in a database the identity of the item;
[0037] (b) for each entity, optionally registering further
information about the item; and
[0038] (c) registering in the database a spatial co-ordinate
identifier corresponding to the location of each item wherein each
spatial co-ordinate indicates the precise spatial location
identifier of the entity at which the item is located.
[0039] Preferably, the item in question is defined by co-ordinates
specified relative to each one of three dimensions. Alternatively,
the item in question may be defined by an area of spatial
co-ordinates, each spatial co-ordinate being specified as relative
to each one of three dimensions. In a further alternative, the item
in question can be defined by a volume of spatial co-ordinates,
each spatial co-ordinate being specified as relative to each one of
three dimensions.
[0040] According to the Invention in a fourth aspect there is
provided a method of delivering geographically based advertising
over the Internet, including the steps of:
[0041] (a) registering in a database one or more goods or services
being offered by one or more advertisers;
[0042] (b) for each good or service offered by the advertiser,
registering an advertiser geographical area indicating the area in
which the advertiser wishes to receive customers;
[0043] (c) determining an Internet user geographical location
identifier, being the precise geographical location of the Internet
user;
[0044] (d) displaying to the Internet user an advertisement, the
advertisement displayed being selected from one or more
advertisements for goods or services wherein the geographical
location of the Internet user is within the advertiser geographical
area corresponding to one or more of the goods or services
presented in the advertisement.
[0045] Preferably, the advertiser geographical area is specified by
precise points of latitude and longitute. The Internet use
geographical location identifier may also be specified by a precise
point of latitude and longitute.
[0046] The Internet user may also supply information including
their Internet user geographical location identifier.
Alternatively, the party presenting the advertisement may track the
Internet user to determine their geographical location and target
advertising accordingly.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0047] The invention will hereinafter be described in greater
detail with reference to the attached drawings which show an
example form of the invention. It is to be understood that the
particularity of those drawings does not supersede the generality
of the preceding description of the invention.
[0048] FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the process of registering a
business, organization or individual (a "subscriber") in the
database.
[0049] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the search process, in which a
person searches the database system according to an embodiment of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0050] An overview of a system according to an embodiment of the
invention can be gained by working through the subscriber
registration process illustrated in FIG. 1. Firstly, a subscriber
chooses to register, and agrees to the terms and conditions. The
subscriber is then prompted to enter contact details including
items such as company name, contact name, subscriber ID, email
address, phone, URL, contact email, nature of business, products
and services, economic region, and subscriber references. The
subscriber then chooses a login name, passes through a payment
process, and logs into a "subscriber's profile page".
[0051] The subscriber then creates a profile from a template. The
subscriber's profile includes the following elements which can be
seen by "visitors":
[0052] Locations for the presentation of logos, drawings or photos
Information that is vital for the business such as name, address,
phone, fax, email, etc.
[0053] Click points that open sub files of information of
importance to the business such as products and services; the sub
files may contain text or images
[0054] A click point to show the business location on the mapping
system
[0055] A facility to leave a message for the subscriber
[0056] A facility to leave an email message
[0057] Other information
[0058] A click point or clickpoints to obtain further information
(via hot links)
[0059] An Internet user who is examining a subscriber's profile can
click on a mapping icon, and the mapping system will bring up the
relevant map at the lowest perspective and display the "spike" (the
precise location of the subscriber's business). From there the user
can pan, scroll or more to a higher elevation.
[0060] The user can also search by:
[0061] (a) selecting a point and then specifying a distance from
that point for that search together with the subject of the
search;
[0062] (b) selecting any object (for example, a road, river or
feature) and nominating a distance from it together with the
subject of the search;
[0063] (c) drawing an area on the map and searching in that area;
or
[0064] (d) nominating a series of features, such as roads, railways
lines and coastlines, which enclose an area and accordingly
searching within the enclosed area.
[0065] In response to a search, the system produces a list of
successes which can be opened by clicking on them.
[0066] A subscriber may have more than one profile. The subscriber
accesses and edits these profiles from a "subscriber's home page",
which is a web page at which the subscriber may choose to: Change
the password
[0067] Amend the display on the subscriber's profile "frontside"
(the part which can be seen by "visitors")
[0068] Locate or relocate the business on the mapping system
[0069] Establish or change search criteria
[0070] Purchase and establish a banner ad on a screen of mapping
information
[0071] Purchase and establish a classified ad
[0072] Request information from the library section of the site
[0073] Request future information from the magazine section of the
site
[0074] Read information found by library/magazine sections
[0075] Receive messages from visitors; turn feature on and off
[0076] Receive and send email
[0077] As part of entering a subscriber profile, the subscriber
clicks on an icon which relates to locating the subscriber's
"spike" on a map. This icon produces an address template which
brings up the appropriate address on the mapping system, and the
subscriber has an opportunity to move the "spike" to the exact
desired location or relocate the "spike" for any reason.
[0078] The "subscriber's home page" and the "subscriber's profile
page" are just two elements of a "super site", which includes a
number of profiles relating to a particular type of industry. There
are a number of super sites, each relating to a different industry.
By way of example, one super site may relate to tourism. The
elements of a super site include a front page, an about
us/products/services page, a search page, a map output page, a
refine search page, subscriber's home pages, subscriber's profile
pages, a classifieds section, a magazine section, payment pages and
administration pages.
[0079] The front page of a super site includes a welcome message,
feature items, what's new items and links to all sections of the
super site. The search page includes the fields: street number,
street name, suburb, state, product/service input box, postcode and
distance. Subscribers may enter various searchable words
descriptive of their businesses, and users can conduct searches
using these key words. Thus, for example, in the tourism super site
a subscriber who operates a restaurant may choose to use such key
words in relation to their businesses as "restaurant", the
restaurant name, "a la carte", "French cuisine", "Diners Club" and
"open 7 days".
[0080] The map output page includes an initial map image,
radial/perspective functionality, proximity input boxes,
directional buttons (panning, re-centring), a refine search button,
and a search again button. The refine search page enables a user to
"drill down" on a street address, change the radial proximity
parameters, change the zoom factor, conduct feature searches (e.g.
where is the nearest?), and pan or re-centre the map. The map
output page also allows a user to click on any point and search
within any distance. This allows the user to click on any object
and search with a pre-determined distance by clicking on an object
and choosing to search within any distance of the object.
Alternatively the user can mark out the nominated area to search or
nominate a series of features that define an area.
[0081] The different super sites are combined into an overall
website, which may be distributed across multiple servers and
multiple geographical locations and URLs. Each super site
preferably relates to a different industry. These can be classified
in any suitable way. One suitable classification system which has
been devised for use with an embodiment of the invention is as
follows:
[0082] Automotive
[0083] Building and Construction
[0084] Communications and Information Technology
[0085] Culture and Recreation
[0086] Education
[0087] Emergency Services and Defence
[0088] Energy
[0089] Food and Beverages
[0090] Government
[0091] Health
[0092] Infrastructure
[0093] Law
[0094] Manufacturing
[0095] Money
[0096] Primary Production
[0097] Real Estate
[0098] Retailing
[0099] Services
[0100] Science and Technology
[0101] Tourism
[0102] Transport, Distribution and Storage
[0103] There will of course be overlap between different super
sites, and some businesses may be registered in more than one super
site. A suitable breakdown of the world's geographical regions is
as follows:
[0104] Canada and Alaska
[0105] USA
[0106] Mexico
[0107] Central America/Caribbean
[0108] Northern Latin America
[0109] Brazil
[0110] Southern Latin America
[0111] Pacific Islands
[0112] Australia
[0113] Indonesian Archipelago
[0114] South East Asia
[0115] Indochina
[0116] Far Eastern Asia
[0117] Korean Peninsula
[0118] Japan
[0119] Russia
[0120] Southern Africa
[0121] Central Africa
[0122] North Africa
[0123] Middle East
[0124] Persia and Western Asia
[0125] Indian Subcontinent
[0126] Scandinavia
[0127] Eastern Europe
[0128] Asia Minor and the Caucasus
[0129] Greece and the Balkans
[0130] Italy
[0131] Iberian Peninsula
[0132] France
[0133] British Isles
[0134] The Low Countries
[0135] Germany
[0136] Central Europe
[0137] In a preferred implementation, each of the above regions has
an Internet site according to the invention (a "Super Site"),
including super sites for each of the 21 industry groups identified
previously.
[0138] The components of the overall website include the super
sites, a master configuration module, an administration module, a
reporting module, a notification module, a payment module, a map
server, and one or more databases.
[0139] The master configuration module represents the top layer of
the web site configuration. It includes tools for configuring the
other modules. The administration module enables an administrator
to: configure a new super site, configure a new customer, grant
permissions, configure a new template, configure a new product,
configure a new report, configure a new content section, associate
a graphics suite by coding image names with a super site code,
publish a super site, configure security roles and levels, and view
and edit records.
[0140] The reporting module allows configuration of reports. Within
a super site, this includes reports of subscribers, transactions,
products, banners served, classifieds served, and search
results.
[0141] The notification module enables notification messages to be
sent to customers to alert them to such things as due dates for
payment of renewals on products. The payment module enables
subscribers to pay fees using a credit card number.
[0142] The map server graphically displays the positions of
selected businesses on a map. The map displays suburb and street
information with icons indicating the position of the selected
businesses. The map server enables searching by state, suburb,
street, region, zipcode or by using a user-defined distance. This
user-defined distance can be the radius from any user-defined
geographical point, defined by a user drawn area or defined by
nominating a series of features which create the area. Each
subscriber profile is entitled to have a location marker,
indicating to the map server the precise geographical location of
the subscriber's business.
[0143] The website includes one or more databases which store
information about the products, subscribers, transactions and
content. The product database includes product tables, profile
tables, banners, classifieds, and magazines. The subscriber
database includes subscriber details, associated tables with
products and transactions, and location-coded details. The
transaction database is a repository for all transactional records,
with the possible exception of financial transactions if such
transactions are conducted through a third-party secure payment
service. The content database includes magazine content, banner ad
content, profile content and classified content.
[0144] The use of the invention in relation to Internet advertising
allows advertising and in particular banner advertising to be
targeted to the geographical location of the particular Internet
user. The advertiser can track the user to identify their
geographical location or alternatively the user may submit their
geographical information. This will allow the Internet user to
receive advertising which is directly relevant to his geographical
area.
[0145] The advertiser may specify the exact geographical boundaries
to which they wish their Internet advertising to be directed. This
has the advantage of making Internet advertising available to small
businesses that have a localised customer base. Advertisers can
target as broadly as the whole nation or as accurately as the local
neighbourhood (to less than a square km) making Internet
advertising to these small local advertisers for the first
time.
[0146] The invention also enables advertisers to target different
advertising campaigns to different geographical regions.
[0147] Generally, the Invention can be used to locate relevant
internet files of information according to either geographical or
spatial location.
[0148] It is to be understood that various additions, alterations
and/or modifications may be made to the parts previously described
without departing from the ambit of the invention.
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