Method of Geographical Searching and Indexing of Data by Location Is Industry Standard for Local Search.
Irvine, Calif. — Local.com Corporation, a leading local search engine, today announced that the company has been awarded patent number 7,231,405 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the process of indexing and retrieving web-related information by geographical location.
The patent covers local search technology related to identifying location information from web documents, indexing that information and making it searchable geographically.
The U.S. website provides users with targeted, relevant local search results, including special offers from local businesses, user reviews, local businesses’ website links, maps, driving directions and more.
In Local.com’s commercial implementation of the technology, the search results are ranked by search term, LocalRank score, location prominence, among other factors. The system then extracts, matches and indexes web pages from the Internet and generates web references where applicable on more than 16 million local businesses listed nationwide on Local.com.
Regional media including local newspapers, radio and television stations and yellow pages companies can use this platform to incorporate Local.com’s powerful local search technology into their website via a customized, private-label local business directory platform.
“We are very pleased to announce the granting of the patent number 7,231,405 as we believe the methods covered have subsequently become the de-facto standard for information retrieval in the local search industry,” said Heath Clarke, Chairman and CEO, Local.com.
This patent represents our continued commitment to developing products and services at the forefront of local search innovation. The unique technology related to geographical searching and indexing of web data gives us an advantage over conventional search technologies by providing improved relevance and better overall performance, continued Clarke.
Businesses can advertise on Local.com with subscription, pay-per-click, banner and pay-per-call ad products. The site’s mobile service, Local Mobile, provides local search results via mobile phones and devices.
“We encourage other local search companies that are interested in using our intellectual property to enter into licensing agreements with Local.com,” Clarke said.
To experience Local.com log on to: http://www.local.com.