Patent ID: 7783621

Claim:
A method for performing a proximity search, comprising: receiving, at a computing device, data representing a geographical position and data representing a distance; processing the data using the computing device, including: determining a first latitude north of the geographical position by an amount of the distance, determining a second latitude south of the geographical position by the amount of the distance, determining a first longitude west of the geographical position based on the amount of the distance and a mathematical function of a latitude of the geographical position, and determining a second longitude east of the geographical position based on the amount of the distance and the mathematical function of the latitude of the geographical position; determining at the computing device whether a place of interest is proximate to the geographical position based on a determination that a latitude of the place of interest is between the first latitude and the second latitude and a longitude of the place of interest is between the first longitude and the second longitude; and outputting a result of the proximity determination from the computing device.