Area-of-Interest (AOI) labeling instructions

Area of Interest (AOI) refers to a geographical area that a search engine user is interested in, which could be a
political feature (like a city, region), or a Point of Interest (like Eiffel Tower). A query contains an Area of Interest
(AOI) if the query text refers to a location and/or if the query seeks information/services specific to an area. In
this task we categorize AOI intents from sampled queries.

The two main steps to achieve this goal are:

 Step 1: Determine whether the query contains an Area of Interest (AOI).

We should consider the user's coarse location of presence (LOP) while determining the AOI intent. That
is, when LOP isn't available, consider at least the country of the request. Note that the location of
presence isn't automatically the AOI of the query. This is only true when this area is essential in
identifying the most suitable results.

1. Label [ None] if no Area of Interest (AOI) is present. For example:

1. The query doesn't have a local intent (e.g., online shopping);
2. The query refers to the name of a non local company, or a brand;
3. The location term is not an AOI, but is used to describe the user intent (Like an
adjective; for instance, the last row below)

The following are examples where no AOI is present:

Query Rationale
Amazon No location is related to the query.
Fundrise investment Name of an online investment platform.
Moore maker Knife brand in US.
Brazilian coffee User is looking for a type of coffee beans.

 Step 2: Do label the type of the AOI intent once detected.

1. Label [ Explicit] when there is an Area of Interest (AOI) present explicitly among the query
terms OR the query searches a specific locational entity.

Most users issuing this query are looking for something or seeking services in this area. The
AOI may not be exactly spelled out and might refer to the user's location of presence, e.g. via
near me.

Note that: 1) If the user is looking for a business that provides local services (e.g., a restaurant,
store), then the AOI is explicit, even though the address of the business is not in the query. e.g.
"Sushi tomi takeout" 2) If the location term is only used to describe the user intent, it is not an
AOI, e.g., USA T shirt.

There could be multiple AOI intents, e.g. consider the query [flights to Rome], for a user in
NYC, this presents NYC and Rome as separate location references.

Examples:

Query Rationale
google hk hk stands for Hong Kong, "hk" does not conflict with "google hk".
hyde park unambiguous park in London.
new york lottery state of new york does not conflict with the lottery.
sushi tomi
sushi tomi is a restaurant in MTV.
takeout
food near me the query explicitly refers to the users location, results that aren't near to the
 user are of little use.
ccv san dimas unambiguous POI, ccv = Christ's Church of the Valley.
beverly hills The user is looking for a Porsche dealership/service in Beverly Hills, there is
porsche a prominent POI with this name.

Counterexamples:

Query Rationale
French refers to the style of the cuisine here and is disconnected from the
french restaurants
country.
While the brand canada goose is headquartered in Canada, the query
canada goose
intent doesn't express interest in that region.
kentucky fried Kentucky is not expressed as an area of interest here, this is part of the
chicken brand name of a global fast food chain.
The user is interested in the software this company offers, not in its
adobe
headquarter.

2. Label [ Implicit] when there is an Area of Interest (AOI) related to the query, but it is not
mentioned explicitly.

This location is strongly associated with the query intent. An example of an implicit AOI is when
the query is about a local service in a defined area: The defined area is the implicit AOI.

When the implicit AOI is very similar to the user's location of presence, the query is considered
to have implicit AOI when this location is essential in determining the most appropriate results
(See the 'nishi japan shop' example).

Examples:

Query Rationale
hoosier
This is the official state lottery of Indiana state.
lottery
inqilab A major Bengali daily newspaper from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
bulls tickets Most users will be looking for home games for the Chicago Bulls.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield (bcbs) of Alabama is an insurance company
headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. It provides insurance state-wide in
Alabama.
bcbs of
alabama
The fact that its name includes the term alabama is not enough to mark it as
[Explicit], here alabama is considered to be part of the name of the business, this
is only a strong indication towards the area of service they provide.
nishi japan
shop Nishi has two shops in Zurich, ~ the smallest feature that contains both of them is
{ [from] a good implicit AOI.
~Zurich }
24 hour The user is most likely looking to find a gym that's open 24/7 near the current
gym location.

Counterexamples:

Query Rationale
There is no direct reference to a location. Uk here refers to a Uk
biden mandates uk
passport holder.
passengers to have
Note: the association to the US (via Biden's mandate) does not bear
the vaccine
significant information.
 LA Dodgers is a baseball team, the query intent is to find a radio station
that broadcasts games. LA as implicit reference is not significant for this
dodger radio station
intent, in particular as the best result for this is the online broadcast from
mlb.com which is not tied to any location.

Summary of the labels

Label Meaning
[Explicit] When there is an AOI present explicitly among the query terms.
[Implicit] When there is an AOI related to the query, but it is not mentioned explicitly.
[None] If no AOI is present.
A user entered the following query into Google: