Abstract: The present invention pertains to enhancement or refinement of estimated locations based upon user-specific information. Upon user authorization, geographical information is extracted from a number of user-related sources, including the web browser history, search history, maps history, address book, e-mail archives and calendar entries. Such information is used to build a spatial index of specific physical locations for a geocoded result set. From this, heat maps identifying particular locations from the user-related sources are created for different periods of time. The heat maps may be used to refine an initial location estimate of the user. This may be done by determining whether one or more positions in a given heat map provide a more accurate position of the user than the initial estimate. If so, a best position is selected. This can be used to provide enhanced driving directions to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, including a method that comprises: determining a target geographic feature that has insufficient targeting information associated therewith, the target geographic feature defining a location; determining one or more similar geographic features to the target geographic feature, each geographic feature including targeting information, the determining based on shared excess queries that are shared between geographic features that are determined to be similar to the target geographic feature, wherein each excess query is a query associated with and exceeds an expected query count for each of the similar geographic features and the target geographic feature; attributing targeting information associated with at least one of the one or more similar geographic features to the target geographic feature; and serving content responsive to queries that relate to the target geographic feature based at least in part on the at

Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving a voicemail message from a first telephone user for a second telephone user; providing, for display in a messaging inbox of the second telephone user, the voicemail message or information used to retrieve the voicemail message; and providing the voicemail message or information used to retrieve the voicemail message in a messaging outbox of the first telephone user, wherein the messaging outbox is formatted to display to the first telephone user a plurality of messages sent by the first telephone user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, for providing a method that comprises: determining excess queries over multiple time periods for a given geographic feature, where the geographic feature defines a location; comparing geographic features for similarity based at least in part on the excess queries associated with a respective geographic feature; and for a given target geographic feature, determining one or more similar geographic features based on the comparing.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for ranking content using location-based query log analysis. The method comprises: identifying a region defining an area of interest including identifying a plurality of content items that are associated with the region; evaluating query logs associated with users that submitted queries associated with the region to determine a ranking associated with the plurality of content items; receiving a request for content associated with the region; and providing one or more of the content items based at least in part on the ranking.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for determining content items for delivery to users based on imagery. One example method includes determining a location of a user or a location associated with a query submitted by the user, identifying imagery associated with the determined location, and determining one or more content items for delivery to the user based at least in part on the imagery.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for propagating labels. The method comprises determining a set of labels to be associated with users of a social network, the labels including one or more designators for specifying areas of interest and areas of disinterest for a user. The method further comprises associating nodes in a graph representing the social network, where the users are represented by user nodes in the graph, and determining that a user is similar or dissimilar to another user in the social network. The method further comprises determining weights for the labels, each weight reflecting a magnitude of a contribution of an associated label to a characterization of the respective node, and propagating labels to other nodes that are related to the respective node by a relationship, including propagating labels in accordance with the determined similarity or dissimilarity.

Abstract: An alert server is operative to notify users when they are in proximity within one another. The alert server may determine to alert a first user of the proximity of a second user when the second user is in an unusual location. The alert server may determine that the second user is in an unusual location when the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location. The alert server may determine whether the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location by assigning confidence values to geographic locations that the second user has previously visited. The alert sent to the first user may be in the form of a text message, e-mail, or other electronic communication. The first user may receive the alert on a mobile device, such as a cellphone, smartphone, netbook, or other mobile device.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium for transcribing information. A method includes: identifying a telephone number that once dialed has an associated message that is played or includes a response system; transcribing the message or information about the response system; storing the transcribed message or information in association with the telephone number in database; receiving a request from a user that includes the telephone number; and providing information about the transcribed information to the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for mapping keywords to geographic features. In some aspects, a method includes identifying location keywords associated with granular locations and identifying geographic features associated with an area of interest that includes the granular locations. For each geographic feature, the method includes determining geo data for the geographic feature, forming a set of granular locations that is associated with the geographic feature using the determined geo data, and aggregating a set of location keywords from the identified location keywords. The set of location keywords is associated with the set of granular locations to form a keyword mapping for the geographic feature. The method includes receiving an indication of a geographic location associated with a user, determining a first geographic feature that includes the geographic location, and targeting content for delivery to the user using a corresponding keyword mapping for the determined first geographic feature.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, including a method that comprises: determining excess queries for a target geographic feature, where the geographic feature defines a location; determining one or more candidate geographic features that have similar excess queries, but displaced in time; determining a time offset between the target geographic feature and a candidate geographic feature based on the displacement in time of the similar excess queries; and targeting content to the candidate geographic feature using the time offset and based on content targeted to the target geographic feature.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for creating and using personalized location information tags (geotags). Personalized geotags take the place of generic location information such as latitude/longitude coordinates or granular city/state information. Such geotags may be published to present to selected people, e.g., family and friends, a user's current location. Thus, the user's location may be shown as “Home” or “Gym,” providing user-specific information without having to list a street address or latitude/longitude coordinates. Personalized geotags may be inferred based upon historical location information of the user. Geotags may also be inferred based upon geotag selections from other users in a network. A matching engine may select an appropriate geotag given the current location of a user device or based upon historical location information associated with the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products, including computer programs encoded on a computer readable storage medium, for providing content to a user based on the mode of the user. A method includes: providing a data structure that includes query logs; processing query logs to determine candidate queries that satisfy a criteria, the processing including determining a location of interest, if any, for each query log entry and where the criteria requires an entry to have been submitted from a location that is different from a location of interest associated with the entry; evaluating the candidate queries to determine targeting information for the location of interest; receiving a request for content from a user that is proximate to the location of interest or has expressed an interest in the location of interest; and providing content to the user based at least in part on the targeting information.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for delivering route information. One example method includes receiving a request from a user for a route from a starting point to a destination point, determining the route including route information defining the route, and classifying the route. Prior to the user embarking on the route, one or more content items are determined for presentation to the user based at least in part on the route information and the route classification, and the route information and the content items are delivered to the user responsive to the request.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for providing content to a user or computing device is disclosed. A plurality of operating modes for a computing device are identified based on usage information generated for the computing device over one or more periods of time. A request for content to display at the computing device is received, and the computing device is determined to be operating in at least one of the operating modes. User targeting information for the at least one of the operating modes is determined based on at least a portion of the usage information, and content for display at the computing device is provided based on the targeting information for the at least one of the operating modes.

Abstract: Methods, and systems, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage mediums, including a method for providing a graph that includes entity nodes, label nodes and weighted connecting edges. The method comprises computing an aggregated incoming between-entity edge weight for the entity nodes. When there are positively-weighted incoming between-entity edges into the entity node, the method comprises replacing each of the between-entity edge weights by a pre-normalized between-entity edge weights. The method comprises computing an aggregated from-label weight for the entity node. When there are positively-weighted from-label node edges, the method comprises replacing the corresponding label weights by pre-normalized from-label weights. The method comprises determining influence values for a first, second and third influence factors, where the influence factors have values that sum to one.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products, including computer programs encoded on a computer readable storage medium, for providing content to a user based on the mode of the user. A method includes: identifying a user for targeting content; evaluating usage information for the user to determine targeting information for a plurality of modes associated with the user; receiving a request to deliver content to the user including an identifier associated with the user and information to determine which mode of the plurality of modes the user is operating in; and providing content to the user based on the mode and associated targeting information.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for selecting keywords for resources. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a particular online resource that includes non-text content. Co-visitation data are obtained for the particular resource. The co-visitation data specify one or more co-requested online resources for the particular online resource. Each of the co-requested online resources were requested by a user device within a threshold period of the request for the particular online resource by the user device. Keywords are identified for each of the co-requested online resources, and can include keywords that were selected based on text content of the co-requested online resource. One or more of the identified keywords are selected as keywords for the particular resource.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for mapping keywords to geographic features. One example method includes identifying location keywords for each of a multitude of granular locations, determining a feature size for grouping granular locations over an area of interest, determining geo data for one or more features, locating all granular locations which are associated with a given feature using the geo data and forming a set of granular locations per feature, aggregating the location keywords for each granular location in a set forming a keyword mapping for the given feature, receiving an indication of a geographic location that is proximate to a user or is of interest to the user, determining a geographic feature associated with the geographic location, and targeting content for delivery to the user based at least in part on the keyword mapping.

Abstract: An alert server is operative to notify users when they are in proximity within one another. The alert server may determine to alert a first user of the proximity of a second user when the second user is in an unusual location. The alert server may determine that the second user is in an unusual location when the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location. The alert server may determine whether the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location by assigning confidence values to geographic locations that the second user has previously visited. The alert sent to the first user may be in the form of a text message, e-mail, or other electronic communication. The first user may receive the alert on a mobile device, such as a cellphone, smartphone, netbook, or other mobile device.