Patent ID: 8345874

Claim:
A system for providing information to a user, comprising: a first database; and one or more computer processors and memory programmed to perform: a first process of receiving information including information items to be entered in said first database from at least one information provider, said information including at least data representative of a plurality of geographical codes defining associated information items as being relevant to respective geographical areas, and data representative of one or more categorical codes, each of said information items being associated with at least one of the geographical codes and at least one of the categorical codes, said geographical codes being chosen by said at least one information provider from a system of geographical codes representing a plurality of geographical levels; a second process of receiving an information request from a user, said information request including at least data representative of a geographical position and data representative of a categorical preference, said categorical preference including a plurality of categorical codes each of which is associated with a geographical preference indicating one or more of said geographical levels; and a third process of: entering information items included in the information received by said first process in said first database as respective entries, the information items being entered in said first database in relation to said geographical codes and said categorical codes, searching said first database based on requests received by said second module, retrieving entries from said first database that have: an associated geographical code that corresponds with said geographical position and said geographical preference, and an associated categorical code that corresponds with said categorical preference, and transmitting a presentation of the retrieved entries to said user; wherein said first process further receives a request for assignment of a geographical code from an information provider; said one or more computer processors and memory being programmed to further perform: a fourth process of generating a geographical code in response to said request and transmitting data representative of said geographical code to said information provider; wherein said fourth process further encrypts said geographical code and transmits said encrypted code to said information provider as said data representative of said geographical code.