| CPC G06F 3/04817 (2013.01) [G06F 3/0482 (2013.01); G06F 3/04842 (2013.01); G06F 3/0488 (2013.01); G06F 16/248 (2019.01); G06F 16/29 (2019.01); G06F 16/487 (2019.01); G06F 16/9535 (2019.01); G06F 16/9537 (2019.01); G06Q 50/01 (2013.01); G06T 11/206 (2013.01); G06T 11/60 (2013.01); H04L 41/22 (2013.01); H04L 41/28 (2013.01); H04L 51/52 (2022.05); H04L 63/101 (2013.01); H04L 63/107 (2013.01); H04L 67/12 (2013.01); H04L 67/306 (2013.01); H04L 67/52 (2022.05); H04L 67/535 (2022.05); H04W 4/02 (2013.01); H04W 4/029 (2018.02); H04W 4/185 (2013.01); H04W 4/21 (2018.02); H04W 12/02 (2013.01); G06F 9/547 (2013.01); G06T 2200/24 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method comprising:
accessing activity data for a social media platform, the activity data comprising geo-tagged social media items uploaded by users for display via a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) for the social media platform, the map-based GUI comprising:
an interactive map of at least part of the Earth's surface, and
an overlay on the map that visually represents geo-linked social media activity information;
in an automated operation performed by a map engine comprising one or more computer processor devices configured to perform the automated operation, compiling a plurality of sets of overlay data units, wherein:
each set of overlay data units is for a respective one of a plurality of different zoom levels,
wherein each overlay data unit is specific to a respective one of multiple uniform geographical segments that together tile-wise cover at least part of the Earth's surface at a corresponding zoom level, and
wherein each overlay data unit is a separate unit of structured data defining geo-anchored data points having respective locations falling within the corresponding geographical segment;
receiving from a user device a request for display, via an instance of the map-based GUI on the user device, of a requested geographical area at a requested zoom level;
responsive to the request:
retrieving a set of map tiles that together cover the requested geographical area at the requested zoom level, each map tile comprising underlying map imagery for a corresponding portion of the Earth's surface;
retrieving from the respective set of overlay data units for the requested zoom level a precompiled plurality of overlay data units corresponding to the requested geographical area; and
transmitting the retrieved set of map tiles to the user device to enable display, as part of the map-based GUI, of a map background for the requested geographical area; and
transmitting the precompiled plurality of overlay data units to the user device to enable generation and display by the user device, based on the corresponding geo-anchored data points and overlaid on the map background, of the overlay for the requested geographical area.
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