Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to flexible, user-adapted, continuous searching, on behalf of a particular user, for points of interest relevant to the user's current location within a specifically computed personal region of interest. In a general case, the personal region of interest is computed as a function of the user's level of disposition towards the searched-for points of interest. The level of disposition towards the searched-for points of interest may, in turn, be based on two or more of the user's location, the current date and time, a history of the user's interaction with the POI-searching system, including user-initiated searches and user selections from displayed search results, a user profile developed for, and continuously updated on behalf of, the user, and a current context for the search, as specified by a search query or by other context-specifying means.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed that locate implicitly defined semantic structures in a document, such as, for example, implicitly defined lists in an HTML document. The semantic structures can be used in the calculation of distance values between terms in the documents. The distance values may be used, for example, in the generation of ranking scores that indicate a relevance level of the document to a search query.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying sights associated with a location and for displaying images associated with those sights is provided. A tour system identifies sights associated with a location by submitting a search request formed using the location to an image search service. The tour system identifies salient phrases of metadata of the search results to be the candidate sight names. The tour system also provides a user interface for displaying the images associated with the locations. The user interface may present a slideshow of sights encountered when traveling on a trip.

Abstract: Each of information on user characteristic and information on game content characteristic is arranged as position information using two or more parameters on the same coordinate system. The contents are divided into a plurality of content groups. Upon reception of an information search request from a user, a distance between the position corresponding to the user characteristic and the position of the center of gravity of each content group is obtained unless the target content condition is decided. When the target content condition is decided, a distance between the segment connecting the user position with the content position selected as the target and the position of center of gravity of each content group is obtained. Not only the content contained in the group approximating the user characteristic or the target content but also the content contained in a comparatively approximating group is presented to the user as a selection candidate according to the obtained distance.

Abstract: A method of detection of fraud in a mortgage application: in a computer system, maintaining a database of sales prices of real properties in a geographic area where the property is located; obtaining a valuation history for the property; obtaining historical sales data for similar properties in the geographic area; computing price ratios using these valuation histories; computing a distortion index based on the price ratios, the distortion index indicating the likelihood of a fraudulent valuation.

Abstract: Multiple entities are tracked over periods of time and information concerning these entities are collected. For each entity, the entities associated with the entity and the types of associations are determined. One or more entities of interest is/are identified. Different weights are assigned to the entities on the trajectories connecting with the entity or entities of interest based on their associations with the entity or entities of interest and their positions on the trajectories. Selected entities are ranked and surfaced based on their total weights for the entity or entities of interest.

Abstract: Method for determining a relevance between an image and information pertaining to the image, including receiving information about a geographical region, displaying the image related to the geographical region, receiving an estimated location information of the image, and determining the relevance between the image and the information based on the estimated location information.