Systems and methods for improving the ranking of news articles

• US 7,577,655 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2003
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schmitt, Michael, Bharat, Krishna, Curtiss, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo; Thuy N
• Application Number:
  US10/662,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20050060312A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,163 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/7, 707/10, 707/2, 707/101, 707/102, 707/104.1, 705/26, 455/186.1, 715/210, 715/802
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system ranks results. The system may receive a list of links. The system may identify a source with which each of the links is associated and rank the list of links based at least in part on a quality of the identified sources.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a processor, one or more metric values for a news source based at least in part on at least one of a number of articles produced by the news source during a first time period, an average length of an article produced by the news source, an amount of coverage that the news source produces in a second time period, a breaking news score, an amount of network traffic to the news source, a human opinion of the news source, circulation statistics of the news source, a size of a staff associated with the news source, a number of bureaus associated with the news source, a number of original named entities in a group of articles associated with the news source, a breadth of coverage by the news source, a number of different countries from which network traffic to the news source originates, or a writing style used by the news source determining, by the processor, an importance metric value representing the amount of coverage that the news source produces in a second time period,

where the determining an importance metric includes;

determining, by the processor, for each article produced by the news source during the second time period, a number of other non-duplicate articles on a same subject produced by other news sources to produce an importance value for the article, and

adding, by the processor, the importance values to obtain the importance metric value;

generating, by the processor, a quality value for the news source based at least in part on the determined one or more metric values; and

using, by the processor, the quality value to rank an object associated with the news source.

2. The method of claim 1 where the determining includes:

determining, by the processor, a plurality of metric values for the news source.

3. The method of claim 2 where the generating includes:

multiplying, by the processor, each metric value in the plurality of metric values by a factor to create a plurality of adjusted metric values, and

adding, by the processor, the plurality of adjusted metric values to obtain the quality value.

4. The method of claim 3 where the plurality of metric values includes a predetermined number of highest metric values for the news source.

5. The method of claim 2 where the generating includes:

normalizing, by the processor, each metric value in the plurality of metric values, and

adding, by the processor, the plurality of normalized metric values to obtain the quality value.

6. The method of claim 5 where the plurality of metric values includes a predetermined number of highest metric values for the news source.

7. The method of claim 2 where the generating includes:

adding, by the processor, the plurality of metric values for the news source to produce a total value,

obtaining, by the processor, the quality value by dividing the total value by a quantity of metric values in the plurality of metric values.

8. The method of claim 7 where the plurality of metric values includes a predetermined number of highest metric values for the news source.

9. The method of claim 2 where the generating includes:

determining, by the processor, for each metric value in the plurality of metric values, a percentile score relative to a highest value for that metric,

adding, by the processor, the percentile scores to obtain the quality value.

10. The method of claim 9 where the plurality of metric values includes a predetermined number of highest metric values for the news source.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repeating, by the processor, the determining and generating for a plurality of other sources, at least one of the plurality of other sources including a different news source; and

storing, by the processor, the quality values for the news source and the plurality of other sources.

12. The method of claim 1 where the determining includes:

determining, by the processor, a breaking news metric value representing the breaking news score, and

where the determining a breaking news metric value includes;

identifying, by the processor, for at least one article produced by the news source, a first time value at which the at least one article was published by the news source,

identifying, by the processor, a second time value that an initial article published on a same subject as the at least one article,

subtracting, by the processor, the second time value from the first time value to determine a difference time value,

comparing, by the processor, the difference time value to a threshold value, and

assigning, by the processor, a value to the breaking news metric value based at least in part on the comparing.

13. The method of claim 12 where the determining a breaking news metric value further includes:

identifying, by the processor, a group of articles from other news sources that are on a same subject as the at least one article,

multiplying, by the processor, the value by a quantity proportional to a size of the group of articles from the other news sources prior to assigning the value to the breaking news metric value.

14. The method of claim 1 where in determining the one or more metric values, non-duplicate articles are weighted differently than duplicate articles.

15. A server comprising:

a memory; and

a processor to;

determine a plurality of metric values for a news source based at least in part on at least one of;

a number of articles produced by the news source during a first time period, an average length of an article produced by the news source, an amount of coverage that the news source produces in a second time period, a breaking news score, an amount of network traffic to the news source, a human opinion of the news source, circulation statistics of the news source, a size of a staff associated with the news source, a number of bureaus associated with the news source, a number of original named entities in a group of articles associated with the news source, a breadth of coverage by the news source, a number of different countries from which network traffic to the news source originates, or a writing style used by the news source,

normalize each metric value in the plurality of metric values,

add the plurality of normalized metric values to obtain a quality value, and

store the quality value in the memory.

16. A computer-readable memory device containing instructions for controlling at least one processor to perform a method for determining a quality of sources, the method comprising:

determining, for each source of a plurality of sources, a plurality of metric values based at least in part on at least one of a number of articles produced by the source during a first time period, an average length of an article produced by the source, an amount of coverage that the source produces in a second time period, a breaking news score, an amount of network traffic to the source, a human opinion of the source, circulation statistics of the source, a size of a staff associated with the source, a number of bureaus associated with the source, a number of original named entities in a group of articles associated with the source, a breadth of coverage by the source, a number of different countries from which network traffic to the source originates, or a writing style used by the source;

generating a quality value for each source of the plurality of sources based at least in part on the determined plurality of metric values for the source, where the generating includes;

multiplying each metric value in the plurality of metric values by a factor to create a plurality of adjusted metric values, and

adding the plurality of adjusted metric values to obtain the quality value; and

storing the generated quality value for each source of the plurality of sources.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a search query;

generating, by the processor, a ranked list of on-line news articles based on the search query;

identifying, by the processor, a news source for at least one on-line news article of the ranked list of on-line news articles;

determining, by the processor, based on the identified news source, whether a source rank exists for the at least one on-line news article, where the source rank is determined by;

adding, by the processor, a plurality of metric values for the at least one on-line news article to produce a total value, and

obtaining, by the processor, the source rank by dividing the total value by a quantity of metric values in the plurality of metric values; and

adjusting, by the processor, a ranking of the at least one on-line news article if the source rank exists for the at least one on-line news article.