Off-Viewport Location Indications for Digital Mapping

A computing system for providing map information, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media that store instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• receiving, by the computing system, one or more requests associated with map data of a selected region;
• obtaining, in response to the one or more requests, the map data associated with the selected region;
• identifying, in response to the one or more requests, a plurality of records based at least in part on the one or more search criteria and a location criterion, each of the plurality of records being associated with a respective record location that is outside of the selected region;
• selecting a subset of the plurality of records and supplemental data associated with the subset of records;
• and
• providing, in response to the one or more requests and for display in a viewport of a digital mapping of a remote communications device, the map data and the supplemental data associated with the subset of the plurality of records.

A method for presenting map data to a user of a communications device, the communications device being operative to access a first database external to the communications device to obtain map data describing transport routes in a mapped region, and operative to access a second database storing a plurality of records, each record being associated with one or more respective index terms and with a respective record location within the mapped region, the method comprising the communication device:

• obtaining, from the first database, map data relating to a selected region which is a portion of the mapped region;
• presenting the obtained map data in a display area of a screen of the communications device, each point of the display area corresponding to a respective point of the selected region under a continuous mapping;
• defining one or more search criteria;
• initiating a search in the second database, the search comprising:
• (i) identifying any of said records for which the respective index terms match the one or more search criteria, and
• (ii) identifying at least one record cluster, each record cluster being associated with a respective location criterion, and each record cluster comprising a respective plurality of the identified records for which the associated record locations are outside the selected region and meet the respective location criterion;
• and
• presenting on the screen a respective visual indication of an existence of the at least one record cluster.