associated with characteristics and attributes of the geographic region that the corresponding polygon encloses as a result the polygon representing the geographic region defined by pasadena calif may be given an identifier which may be associated with characteristics such as the city name state name and country name the polygon representing pasadena tex may be defined in the same way thus when searching for pasadena the identifying processor 106 may recognize that there are two distinct pasadena locations from the distinct identifiers the identifying processor 106 may also know that one pasadena may be found in california and the other in texas by associating the identifier with the other characteristics accordingly the associating processor 110 may use algorithms to identify clues to disambiguate the two for example if the user 39 s ip address is located in california then the probability is high that the user intends pasadena calif and not pasadena tex or if the user is searching for u201c manchester u201d and the user is searching from a united kingdom registered web site the probability is high that the user intends manchester england not manchester conn other algorithms may be used to disambiguate two locations in one embodiment natural language algorithms may be employed such as those disclosed in u s patent application ser nos 11 314 166 and 11 314 956 entitled u201c system for classifying words u201d and u201c system for determining probable meanings of inputted words u201d respectively filed on the same day as the present application and incorporated by reference herein the identifiers may also be used.