Method and Apparatus for Providing Geographically Authenticated Electronic Documents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing geographically authenticated electronic documents is disclosed. Authentication for attributes for an electronic document stored on a computer network are defined, the attributes comprise at least one attribute describing a geographic location associated with the electronic document. Authenticated attributes (e.g., geographic location) of electronic documents (e.g., Web pages) allow for more accurate geographic searching and filtering. An authenticated digital certificate is created and associated with an electronic document. The authenticated digital certificate can be stored within the electronic document, such as can be done with HTML tags on a Web page. The digital certificate can also be stored as a separate file associated with the electronic document, as a separate signed digital certificate and as a database record.

1 . A computerized method of searching for electronic documents, the method comprising:
 monitoring queries at a search engine interface;   detecting a geographic term in a search query the search engine;   searching, independent of the search performed by the search engine, a database for verified URL addresses associated with the geographic term, the database storing information about a plurality of online electronic documents, including a URL address of the document and a verified geographic location associated with the document, the geographic location being verified using a mechanism other than the content of the electronic document;   in response to the search engine providing query results, comparing the query results from the search engine with the verified URL, addresses from the database that correspond to the geographic term; and   updating the query results from the search engine to identify which URL addresses in the search results correspond to the verified URL addresses from the database.   
   
   
       2 . A computerized method of searching for electronic documents, the method comprising:
 creating a searchable index using content from electronic documents having geographically verified URL addresses that are associated with a geographic location verified by a mechanism other than the content of the electronic document;   storing, in one or more tables locally on the user computer, the geographically verified URL addresses, the searchable index, and the geographic location associated with the geographically verified address;   detecting a search query specifying the geographic location and a keyword;   responding to the query by searching the locally stored searchable index for geographically verified URL addresses having content associated with the keyword; and   identifying the geographically verified URL addresses having content associated with the keyword.