Abstract: A system and method for generating collections of media are provided. A media collage is constructed such that all its contained media, such as digital images, are selected and organized according to an associated characteristic. Sequential media collages can be generated by the same selection and organization approach.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently searching for geographic information for named geographic items is presented. Geographic information is organized in a hierarchical manner. The lowest level of the hierarchy is divided into sections, each section corresponding to an area of a geographic region, and includes the available geographic information, including named geographic items, corresponding to that area. Upper levels of the hierarchy are comprised of sections as well. Each section in an upper level corresponds to at least one lower level section, and includes a subset of the geographic information of its at least one lower level section. Geographic names of items previously determined important in a lower level section are included in the subset of geographic information at the corresponding upper level section. Searching for a geographic name begins are the most specific section identified by information from a user, and if not found there, searches upward in the hierarchy.