1. A method implemented at least partially by a processor, the method comprising: accessing a spatial map; partitioning the spatial map into grids to identify representative categories located in each of the grids; selecting a query region with a place of interest in a representative category in the spatial map; in response to the query region, receiving a set of geographical candidates in the spatial map that includes the representative categories; determining whether the query region and the set of candidates in the spatial map include content information that is similar having common geometric properties, common representative categories, and common spatial distributions of representative categories; and providing top ranking geographical regions from the set of geographical candidates in the spatial map that have content information that is similar to the query region.