Patent Document ID: RE44876
Application ID: 13277008
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method carried out by a computer system of identifying records based on proximity to a reference location in response to a search query, comprising the steps of: by one or more computing devices, determining location data representative of the reference location; converting said location data into a reference location pointer that points to one of a plurality of predefined geographic regions, each of the predefined geographic regions having four sides of an equal surface distance and associated with a location pointer having a first index and a second index, the first index and the second index identifying a point on a coordinate system; by the one or more computing devices, identifying a set of location pointers whose corresponding predefined geographic regions are within a certain distance from the predefined geographic region corresponding to the reference location pointer using an integer number, N, which is obtained by dividing the certain distance by the equal surface distance, wherein each of the location pointers in the set has a first index that differs from the first index of the reference location pointer by no more than N and a second index that differs from a third index by no more than N, wherein the third index is a function of the first index of the reference location pointer and represents the same longitudinal position as the reference location pointer; and by the one or more computing devices, identifying records having location pointers that are in the set.