Abstract: An exterior wall section forms a portion of an exterior wall of a building. The building has multiple floors and a framework defining the multiple floors. The exterior wall section includes a structural layer to be connected to the framework. The structural layer includes a plurality of studs connected together. An insulation layer is supported by the structural layer to insulate the building. Siding is supported by the structural layer and defines an exterior side of the exterior wall section. A perimeter of the exterior wall section is defined by the edge margins of the structural layer, the insulation layer and/or the siding. The exterior wall section includes an interlocking structure extending along the perimeter that mates with an interlocking structure of another exterior wall section to form a seal with said another exterior wall section when the exterior wall sections are connected to the building.

Abstract: An exterior wall section forms a portion of an exterior wall of a building. The building has multiple floors and a framework defining the multiple floors. The exterior wall section includes a structural layer to be connected to the framework. The structural layer includes a plurality of studs connected together. An insulation layer is supported by the structural layer to insulate the building. Siding is supported by the structural layer and defines an exterior side of the exterior wall section. A perimeter of the exterior wall section is defined by the edge margins of the structural layer, the insulation layer and/or the siding. The exterior wall section includes an interlocking structure extending along the perimeter that mates with an interlocking structure of another exterior wall section to form a seal with said another exterior wall section when the exterior wall sections are connected to the building.

Abstract: An exterior wall section forms a portion of an exterior wall of a building. The building has multiple floors and a framework defining the multiple floors. The exterior wall section includes a structural layer to be connected to the framework. The structural layer includes a plurality of studs connected together. An insulation layer is supported by the structural layer to insulate the building. Siding is supported by the structural layer and defines an exterior side of the exterior wall section. A perimeter of the exterior wall section is defined by the edge margins of the structural layer, the insulation layer and/or the siding. The exterior wall section includes an interlocking structure extending along the perimeter that mates with an interlocking structure of another exterior wall section to form a seal with said another exterior wall section when the exterior wall sections are connected to the building.

Abstract: An exterior wall section forms a portion of an exterior wall of a building. The building has multiple floors and a framework defining the multiple floors. The exterior wall section includes a structural layer to be connected to the framework. The structural layer includes a plurality of studs connected together. An insulation layer is supported by the structural layer to insulate the building. Siding is supported by the structural layer and defines an exterior side of the exterior wall section. A perimeter of the exterior wall section is defined by the edge margins of the structural layer, the insulation layer and/or the siding. The exterior wall section includes an interlocking structure extending along the perimeter that mates with an interlocking structure of another exterior wall section to form a seal with said another exterior wall section when the exterior wall sections are connected to the building.

Abstract: An exterior wall section forms a portion of an exterior wall of a building. The building has multiple floors and a framework defining the multiple floors. The exterior wall section includes a structural layer to be connected to the framework. The structural layer includes a plurality of studs connected together. An insulation layer is supported by the structural layer to insulate the building. Siding is supported by the structural layer and defines an exterior side of the exterior wall section. A perimeter of the exterior wall section is defined by the edge margins of the structural layer, the insulation layer and/or the siding. The exterior wall section includes an interlocking structure extending along the perimeter that mates with an interlocking structure of another exterior wall section to form a seal with said another exterior wall section when the exterior wall sections are connected to the building.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of interacting with a user, the method involving: enabling a user to post an electronic note with user specified contents; enabling the user to associate the electronic note with a location within a domain with a metric; and publishing the electronic note on a web page that enables people to access its contents.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, obtaining a plurality of sets of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the free-text query and a subdomain identifier identifying a subdomain within the identified domain; displaying on the display device a visual representation of the domain identified by the domain identifier; and displaying a plurality of visual indicators representing the document-location tuples.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: obtaining a text string apparently corresponding to a name of a location; obtaining coordinates for the location; displaying a plurality of text phrases that contain the text string in a plurality of contexts; and accepting user input indicating which text phrases refer to the location. In some embodiments, the program further causes the computer system to perform the functions of assigning a confidence score to the text string and accepting user input that changes the confidence score. The assigned confidence score can be, e.g., 0 or 1. In some embodiments, the program further causes the computer system to perform the functions of displaying an image of the location identified by the coordinates while displaying the plurality of text phrases.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, obtaining a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the search criteria, and at least one document associated with a document-location tuple comprises a location-data file, the location-data file including an image of a metric vector space; displaying on the display device a visual representation of the domain identified by the domain identifier; and displaying a visual indicator based on the image of the metric vector space and overlaying the visual representation of the domain identified by the domain identifier.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: displaying an image of a region of a metric vector space; obtaining a set of pixel extents in the image that contain apparent textual annotations; for each pixel extent of the set, obtaining a confidence score that the pixel extent actually contains a textual annotation; and displaying the set of pixel extents in a ranked list based on the corresponding confidence scores. In some embodiments, the program further causes the computer system to perform the functions of, for at least one pixel extent of the set, at least one of automatically generating a text string based on the apparent textual annotation, and accepting user input entering a text string based on the apparent textual annotation.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, obtaining a plurality of sets of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the free-text query and a subdomain identifier identifying a subdomain within the identified domain; displaying on the display device a visual representation of the domain identified by the domain identifier; and displaying a plurality of visual indicators representing the document-location tuples.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, obtaining a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the search criteria from the user, each location having associated cartographic display attributes; displaying a visual representation of the domain having an average spatial scale; selecting a subset of the set of document-location tuples based on the cartographic display attributes and on the average spatial scale of the visual representation of the domain; and displaying a plurality of visual indicators representing the selected subset of document-location tuples.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program causes a computer system to accept search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; obtaining a set of document-location tuples satisfying the search criteria from a corpus of documents; and determining whether the tuples are associated with a single document or a plurality of documents. If the tuples are associated with multiple documents, the program causes the computer to display a visual domain representation, visual indicators representing the tuples, and, for each tuple, a document summary including a document identifier and a document text substring shorter than a specified length. If the tuples are associated with a single document, the program causes the computer to display a visual domain representation, visual indicators representing the tuples, a document summary including an identifier for the document, and a document text substring longer than the specified length.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting an initialization request from a user to initialize an interface with a location-related search engine; in response to accepting the initialization request from the user, obtaining illustrative search criteria based on a location-related search performed by a prior user interfacing with the location-related search engine, the illustrative search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a domain in a metric vector space; obtaining a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the illustrative search criteria; displaying on the display device a visual representation of the domain identified by the domain identifier; and displaying a plurality of visual indicators representing the set of document-location tuples.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a domain identifier identifying a domain and a free text query entry; in response to accepting said search criteria from the user, receiving a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, wherein each document: (a) contains information that is responsive to the free text query entry; and (b) contains location-related information that refers to a location within the domain; requesting and receiving a result from an additional query based at least in part on the domain identifier, the result not being a document-location tuple; and displaying a visual representation of at least a subset of the document-location tuples and a visual representation of the result of the additional query on the display device.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free-text query and a domain identifier, the domain identifier identifying a physical location; in response to accepting said search criteria from the user, receiving a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, each document-location tuple satisfying the search criteria from the user; organizing the document-location tuples into a hierarchical graph structure, the hierarchical graph structure representing hierarchical spatial relationships between the physical locations; and displaying a visual representation of the hierarchical graph structure on the display device.

Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: displaying a document on the display device; displaying a selectable button for requesting location-related information pertaining to the document; accepting a user selection of the button as a request to view the location-related information pertaining to the document; in response to the request, requesting and receiving metadata identifying candidate location references within the document; displaying on the display device a map with visual indicators representing at least a subset of the plurality of location references within the document; and displaying on the display device the document with visual indicators representing at least a subset of the plurality of location references within the document.

Abstract: A method for displaying information about documents in a corpus of documents, the method involving: accepting search criteria including a free text entry query and a domain identifier identifying a domain; in response to accepting the search criteria, identifying a set of documents among the corpus of documents, wherein each document of the set of documents: (1) contains anywhere within the document location-related information that locates that document within the domain; and (2) contains anywhere within the document information that is responsive to the free text entry query, wherein said identified documents are identified by a plurality of document identifiers; displaying a multi-dimensional representation of the domain on the display device; and displaying within the representation of the domain a plurality of visual indicators as representations of the documents identified by the plurality of document identifiers, wherein each visual indicator of the plurality of visual indicators represents a correspon

Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.

Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about search results representing media objects, wherein at least one media object is associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes: receiving a query from the user; transmitting the query to a search engine; receiving search results from the search engine based on the query, each search result representing a media object; obtaining a spatial thumbnail for a search result representing a media object that is associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the search results and the obtained spatial thumbnail on a visual display.