Hybrid Use of Location Sensor Data And Visual Query to Return Local Listings For Visual Query

A computer-implemented method for identifying similar documents, comprising:

• receiving an image query from a client system, the image query including an image;
• identifying a location of the client system;
• determining an accuracy value that specifies a level of accuracy for the identified location;
• identifying a plurality of search results based on the received image query and the identified location, each search result having an associated prominence value that specifies a relative importance of the search result and a closeness metric that specifies how close a location of an entity referenced by the search result is to the location of the client system;
• determining whether the accuracy value satisfies a threshold;
• selecting one or more of the plurality of search results based on the prominence value and the closeness metric for each search result of the plurality of search results, wherein the closeness metric for each search result is given more weight than the prominence value for each search result in selecting the one or more search results in response to determining that the accuracy value satisfies the threshold;
• and
• providing the one or more selected search results to the client system.

A system, comprising:

• a data processing apparatus;
• and
• a memory storage apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus, the memory storage apparatus storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and that upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
• receiving an image query from a client system, the image query including an image;
• identifying a location of the client system;
• determining an accuracy value that specifies a level of accuracy for the identified location;
• identifying a plurality of search results based on the received image query and the identified location, each search result having an associated prominence value that specifies a relative importance of the search result and a closeness metric that specifies how close a location of an entity referenced by the search result is to the location of the client system;
• determining whether the accuracy value satisfies a threshold;
• selecting one or more of the plurality of search results based on the prominence value and the closeness metric for each search result of the plurality of search results, wherein the closeness metric for each search result is given more weight than the prominence value for each search result in selecting the one or more search results in response to determining that the accuracy value satisfies the threshold;
• and
• providing the one or more selected search results to the client system.

A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• receiving an image query from a client system, the image query including an image;
• identifying a location of the client system;
• determining an accuracy value that specifies a level of accuracy for the identified location;
• identifying a plurality of search results based on the received image query and the identified location, each search result having an associated prominence value that specifies a relative importance of the search result and a closeness metric that specifies how close a location of an entity referenced by the search result is to the location of the client system;
• determining whether the accuracy value satisfies a threshold;
• selecting one or more of the plurality of search results based on the prominence value and the closeness metric for each search result of the plurality of search results, wherein the closeness metric for each search result is given more weight than the prominence value for each search result in selecting the one or more search results in response to determining that the accuracy value satisfies the threshold;
• and
• providing the one or more selected search results to the client system.