DOCUMENT SCORING BASED ON QUERY ANALYSIS

• US 20120016888A1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Published: 01/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Dean, Jeffrey, Haahr, Paul, Henzinger, Monika, Lawrence, Steve, Sercinoglu, Olcan, Tong, Simon, Pfleger, Karl
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/749
• 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 performed by one or more devices, the method comprising:

determining, by at least one of the one or more devices, an amount of time one or more users spent accessing a document;

generating, by at least one of the one or more devices, a score for the document based on the amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document; and

ranking, by at least one of the one or more devices, the document with regard to at least one other document based on the generated score.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a quantity of times that the document is selected out of a plurality of documents, and

where generating the score includes generating the score further based on the determined quantity of times that the document is selected out of the plurality of documents.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

classifying the document as stale when the first amount of time is less than the second amount of time; and

adjusting the score for the document upon classifying the document as stale.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

lowering a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

classifying the document as fresh when the first amount of time is greater than the second amount of time; and

adjusting the score for the document upon classifying the document as fresh.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

increasing a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

7. The method of claim 1, where the generated score is a first score, the method further comprising:

generating a second score, for the document, that is based on a relevance of the document to a search query; and

combining the first and second scores to generate an overall score,

where ranking the document includes ranking the document with regard to the at least one other document based on the overall score.

8. A system, comprising:

one or more devices to;

determine an amount of time one or more users spent accessing a document;

generate a score for the document based on the amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document; and

rank the document with regard to at least one other document based on the generated score.

9. The system of claim 8, where the one or more devices are further to:

determine a quantity of times that the document is selected out of a plurality of documents, and

where when generating the score, the one or more devices are to generate the score further based on the determined quantity of times that the document is selected out of the plurality of documents.

10. The system of claim 8, where the one or more devices are further to:

compare a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

classify the document as stale when the first amount of time is less than the second amount of time; and

adjust the score for the document upon classifying the document as stale.

11. The system of claim 10, where the one or more devices are further to:

lower a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

12. The system of claim 8, where the one or more devices are further to:

compare a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

classify the document as fresh when the first amount of time is greater than the second amount of time; and

adjust the score for the document upon classifying the document as fresh.

13. The system of claim 12, where the one or more devices are further to:

increase a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

14. The system of claim 8, where the generated score is a first score, where the one or more devices are further to:

generate a second score, for the document, that is based on a relevance of the document to a search query; and

combine the first and second scores to generate an overall score,

where the one or more instructions to rank the document include one or more instructions to rank the document with regard to the at least one other document based on the overall score.

15. A computer-readable memory device storing programming instructions that are executable by one or more processors of one or more devices, the programming instructions comprising:

one or more instructions to determine an amount of time one or more users spent accessing a document;

one or more instructions to generate a score for the document based on the amount of time that the one or more users spent accessing the document; and

one or more instructions to rank the document with regard to at least one other document based on the generated score.

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to determine a quantity of times that the document is selected out of a plurality of documents, and

where the one or more instructions to generate the score include one or more instructions to generate the score further based on the determined quantity of times that the document is selected out of the plurality of documents.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to compare a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

one or more instructions to classify the document as stale when the first amount of time is less than the second amount of time; and

one or more instructions to adjust the score for the document upon classifying the document as stale.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to lower a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to compare a first average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a particular time period, to a second average amount of time that users spent accessing the document, during a different time period that is before the particular time period;

one or more instructions to classify the document as fresh when the first amount of time is greater than the second amount of time; and

one or more instructions to adjust the score for the document upon classifying the document as fresh.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 19, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to increase a ranking of the document, with regard to the at least one other document, based on adjusting the score for the document.

21. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, where the programming instructions further include:

one or more instructions to generate a second score, for the document, that is based on a relevance of the document to a search query; and

one or more instructions to combine the first and second scores to generate an overall score,

where the one or more instructions to rank the document include one or more instructions to rank the document with regard to the at least one other document based on the overall score.