DOCUMENT SCORING BASED ON QUERY ANALYSIS

• US 20070088692A1
• Filed: 11/22/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Henzinger, Monika, Lawrence, Steve, Pfleger, Karl, Sercinoglu, Olcan, Tong, Simon, Haahr, Paul, Dean, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system may determine an extent to which a document is selected when the document is included in a set of search results, generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the extent to which the document is selected when the document is included in a set of search results; and rank the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining an extent to which a document is selected when the document is included in a set of search results;

generating a score for the document based, at least in part, on the extent to which the document is selected when the document is included in a set of search results; and

ranking the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an extent to which a document is selected includes:

determining the extent to which the document is selected based, at least in part, on behavior of a single user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an extent to which a document is selected includes:

determining the extent to which the document is selected based, at least in part, on behavior of a plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an extent to which a document is selected includes:

determining a first rate at which the document is selected in a first time period,

determining a second rate at which the document is selected in a second time period, and

comparing the first rate and the second rate to determine whether there is an increase or a decrease in the rate at which the document is selected.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating a score for the document includes:

scoring the document based, at least in part, on whether there is an increase or a decrease in the rate at which the document is selected.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an amount of time one or more users spent accessing the document when the document is selected from the set of search results.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating a score for the document includes:

scoring the document based, at least in part, on the extent to which the document is selected when the document is included in a set of search results and the amount of time the one or more users spent accessing the document.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein determining an amount of time one or more users spent accessing the document includes:

determining a first amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document in a first time period,

determining a second amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document in a second time period, and

comparing the first amount of time and the second amount of time to determine whether there is an increase or a decrease in the amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating a score for the document includes:

scoring the document based, at least in part, on whether there is an increase or a decrease in the amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document.

10. A system, comprising:

means for determining an amount of time one or more users spent accessing a document;

means for generating a score for the document based, at least in part, on the amount of time the one or more users spent accessing the document; and

means for ranking the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

11. A method, comprising:

determining a set of search terms relating to a particular topic or news item;

identifying a first document that is associated with the set of search terms and a second document that is not associated with the set of search terms;

generating a first score for the first document and a second score for the second document, where the first score is higher than the second score; and

ranking the first document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the first score.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining a set of search terms relating to a particular topic or news item includes:

determining a group of search terms that appear more frequently in search queries over time, and

identifying the group of search terms as the set of search terms relating to the particular topic or news item.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining a set of search terms relating to a particular topic or news item includes:

determining an increase in a number of search results generated by search queries with similar groups of search terms, and

identifying the groups of search terms as the set of search terms relating to the particular topic or news item.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining an increase in a number of search results generated by search queries with similar groups of search terms includes:

determining a rate of increase in the number of search results generated by search queries with similar groups of search terms.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving a search query;

performing a search based, at least in part, on the search query to identify a group of search result documents;

determining a staleness of a search result document in the group of search result documents;

determining whether a stale document is preferred for the search query;

generating a score for the search result document based, at least in part, on the staleness of the search result document and whether a stale document is preferred for the search query; and

ranking the search result document with regard to at least one other one of the search result documents based, at least in part, on the score.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether a stale document is preferred for the search query includes:

determining whether users previously selected an older document that was ranked lower over a fresher document that was ranked higher in a set of search results relating to the search query or a similar search query; and

identifying the search query as a search query for which a stale document is preferred when the users previously selected an older document that was ranked lower over a fresher document that was ranked higher in the set of search results relating to the search query or the similar search query.

17. A method, comprising:

determining an extent that a document moves positions in search result rankings;

determining a score for the document based, at least in part, on the extent to which the document moves in search result rankings; and

ranking the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining an extent that a document moves in search result rankings includes:

determining a number of positions that the document moves in the search result rankings.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein determining an extent that a document moves in search result rankings includes:

determining a rate at which the document moves positions in the search result rankings.

20. A method, comprising:

determining an extent that a rank of a document changes over time;

determining or adjusting a score for the document based, at least in part, on the extent that the rank of the document changes over time; and

ranking the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining an extent that a rank of a document changes over time includes:

employing measures to prevent the rank of the document from changing at more than a predetermined rate.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein determining an extent that a rank of a document changes over time includes:

preventing the rank of the document from increasing more than a predetermined threshold amount within a time period.

23. A system, comprising:

means for identifying a document that appears as a search result document for a plurality of discordant search queries;

means for determining a score for the document;

means for negatively adjusting the score for the document; and

means for ranking the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the negatively-adjusted score.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

means for determining whether the document is authoritative; and

means for bypassing the negative adjustment of the score when the document is determined to be authoritative.