Patent ID: 7672779

Claim:
A method for providing geographic item information for a location, using universal location referencing objects, comprising the steps of: accessing a file-of-reference that comprises geographic item information, wherein the file-of-reference comprises geographic item information, including a geographic item associated with a location; accessing a third-party file, wherein the third-party file comprises additional geographic item information that can be associated with the location; and in response to a request for information for a particular location, retrieving a universal location reference object for the particular location, wherein the universal location reference object comprises a universal location reference code that uniquely identifies the particular location, and further comprises identifying information for the particular location, traversing links to the additional geographic item information in the third-party file, associating the geographic item information in the file-of-reference with the additional geographic item information in the third-party file, to create a resultant information, and providing the resultant information as a response to the request.