Patent Application Number: 2007342244
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Facilitator's Comment 
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United States
The application talks about a system of refining search results using location modifier. The way it is being suggested is when a user submitted a search query, a Search Refiner Server (SRS) will try to refine the search via modifying the search string to include location information. The SRS will then tries to determine location information of the user via the following means:
- GPS module in user device
- Social networks (addresses put up on social networking sites)
- Phonebook in user device
- Network information (IP address, MAC address).
From the description, SRS will first parse the original query string, then add location modifier if not specified by the user, or enhance the location modifier otherwise. For example, when SRS parses the search term "Cafe near John's", it will gather John's addresses from either the phonebook or social networking account, and modified the search string to have John's addresses, in order for the search engine to find cafe around the addresses found. The system also describe the idea of having a default location for the user (possibly gathered by last location observed) if the user's current location cannot be obtained.