The patent application was discovered on Thursday by AppleInsider and is titled "Relevancy Ranking for Map-Related Search." It "describes how an iPhone would optionally report a user's present location, via GPS, to help Apple improve its search results."
Abstract
The following relates to ranking search results consisting of locations or recommending locations to visit based on recorded data representing visits by a plurality of users to the locations represented as search results or recommended locations to visit. The data representing users' visits can be recorded by receiving data anonymously reported by handheld communication devices carried by the plurality of users. A handheld communication device, which is carried by a user, can report to the system the user's present location optionally associated with a time stamp. The handheld communication device can report either a single location coordinate or a collection of coordinates gathered over time.
It's assigned to former Placebaser Jaron Waldman and Sr Director Product Marketing at Apple, Chad Richards and the app dates back to March 2010
