Document scoring based on document content update

• US 8,112,426 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2006
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Acharya, Anurag, Dean, Jeffrey, Haahr, Paul, Henzinger, Monika, Lawrence, Steve, Pfleger, Karl, Tong, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US11/562,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,904 Days
• Field of Search: 707 3- 5, 707/7, 707/10, 707/748, 707/750, 707/751, 715/500, 715/513, 715/206, 715/234, 715/738, 709/203, 709/224, 704/9
• US Class Current: 707/748
• 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 a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time, 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 server devices, the method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, an update frequency that is based on how often content of a document is updated in a time period;

determining, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, an update amount that is based on a ratio of a quantity of new or unique pages associated with the document over a period of time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

generating, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a score for the document based on the determined update frequency and the determined update amount; and

ranking, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.

2. The method of claim 1, where the update frequency is based on an average time between updates of the content of the document.

3. The method of claim 1, where the update amount is further based on an amount of the content of the document that has been updated or changed within the time period.

4. The method of claim 1, where determining the update amount further includes:

assigning different weights to different portions of the content of the document, and

determining the update amount based on the assigned weights.

5. The method of claim 4, where assigning different weights to different portions of the content of the document includes:

identifying unimportant portions of the content of the document, and

assigning little weight to the unimportant portions, relative to weights assigned to other portions of the content of the document.

6. The method of claim 1, where determining the update amount further includes:

determining a first rate of change in the content of the document in a first time period,

determining a second rate of change in the content of the document in a second time period, and

comparing the first rate of change and the second rate of change to determine whether there is an increase or a decrease in a rate of change in the content of the document.

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

scoring the document based on whether there is an increase or a decrease in the rate of change in the content of the document.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a representation of the document instead of all of the content of the document, where the representation includes a similarity hash of the document; and

where determining the measure of how the content of the document changes over time includes;

monitoring the similarity hash of the document to detect changes in the document.

9. The method of claim 1, where the document is one of a plurality of documents in a group;

and

where the method further comprises;

determining an average date-of-change of the documents in the group based on dates on which contents of the documents changed.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a date on which the content of the document changed; and

where generating the score for the document includes;

scoring the document based on a difference between the date the document changed and the average date-of-change of the documents in the group.

11. The method of claim 1, where the content of the document is associated with a plurality of individuals or organizations;

and

where determining the update amount further includes;

separately determining the update frequency and the update amount of the documents that are associated with each of the plurality of individuals or organizations.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the content of the document changes such that the content differs from anchor text associated with a link that points to the document; and

where generating the score for the document includes;

scoring the document based on whether the content of the document changes such that the content differs from the anchor text.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing, over time, appearance of anchor text corresponding to links pointing to the document, and

identifying a rate of increase in the appearance of the anchor text; and

where generating the score for the document includes;

scoring the document based on the identified rate of increase in the appearance of the anchor text.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, over time, whether a topic associated with the content of the document changes; and

where generating the score for the document includes;

scoring the document based on the whether the topic associated with the content of the document changes.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating an average value that indicates an amount that the content of the document has changed within the time period,

where the update amount is further based on the calculated average value.

16. A system, comprising:

one or more server devices to;

determine an update frequency associated with a document, where the update frequency is based on a number of updates of content of the document in a time period;

determine an update amount associated with the document, where the update amount is based on a ratio of a quantity of new or unique pages associated with the document over a period of time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

generate a score for the document as a function of both the update frequency and the update amount; and

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

17. The system of claim 16, where when determining the update frequency, the one or more server devices are to:

determine an average time between updates of the content of the document.

18. The system of claim 16, where when determining the update amount, the one or more server devices are further to:

determine an amount of the content of the document that has been updated or changed within the time period.

19. A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, as a function of;

an update frequency that is based on a number of updates of the content of the document in a time period, and

an update amount that is based on a ratio of a quantity of new or unique pages associated with the document over a period of time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

generating, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a score for the document based on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time; and

ranking, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, the document with regard to at least one other document based on the score.

20. The method of claim 19, where the update amount is further based on:

a portion of the visible content of the document that has changed within the time period.

21. The method of claim 20, where the portion is a percentage of the visible content of the document.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

calculating an average value that indicates an amount that the content of the document has changed within the time period,

where the update amount is further based on the calculated average value.

23. The method of claim 19, where determining the measure of how the content of the document changes over time includes:

monitoring the document, and not a representation of the document, for changes in the document.

24. The method of claim 19, where the content of the document is associated with a plurality of individuals or organizations;

and

where determining the measure of how the content of the document changes over time includes;

separately determining the measure of how the content, associated with each of the plurality of individuals or organizations, changes over time.

25. A system, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

one or more processors to execute the instructions to;

determine a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, as a function of;

an update frequency based on a number of updates of the content of the document over time, and

an update amount based on;

how much visible content of the document, out of a total amount of visible content of the document, has changed over time, and

at least one of;

 

a quantity of new pages added to the document over time, or

 

a ratio of a quantity of new pages associated with the document over time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time; and

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

26. The system of claim 25, where the update frequency is based on an average time between updates of the content of the document.

27. The system of claim 25, where generating the score for the document includes:

generating the score for the document based on whether there is an increase or a decrease in a rate of change in the content of the document.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising sets of instructions executable by one or more processors, the sets of instructions comprising:

a set of instructions to determine a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, where the set of instructions to determine the measure of how the content of the document changes over time includes;

a set of instructions to determine an update frequency based on a number of updates of the content of the document in a time period, and

a set of instructions to determine an update amount based on a ratio of a quantity of new or unique pages associated with the document over a period of time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

a set of instructions to generate a score for the document based on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time; and

a set of instructions to rank the document with regard to at least one other document based on the score.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 28, where the set of instructions to generate the score for the document includes:

a set of instructions to generate the score for the document based on whether there is an increase or a decrease in a rate of change in the content of the document.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 28, where the update frequency is based on an average time between updates of the content of the document.

31. A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, as a function of;

an update frequency based on a number of updates of the content of the document over time, and

an update amount based on;

how much visible content of the document, out of a total amount of visible content of the document, has changed over time, and

at least one of;

a quantity of new pages added to the document over time, or

a ratio of a quantity of new pages associated with the document over time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

generating, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, a score for the document based on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time; and

ranking, by one or more processors associated with the one or more server devices, the document with regard to at least one other document based on the score.

32. The method of claim 31, where the update frequency is based on an average time between updates of the content of the document.

33. The method of claim 31, where generating the score for the document includes:

generating the score for the document based on whether there is an increase or a decrease in a rate of change in the content of the document.

34. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising sets of instructions executable by one or more processors, the sets of instructions comprising:

a set of instructions to determine a measure of how a content of a document changes over time, as a function of;

an update frequency based on a number of updates of the content of the document over time, and

an update amount based on;

how much visible content of the document, out of a total amount of visible content of the document, has changed over time, and

at least one of;

a quantity of new pages added to the document over time, or

a ratio of a quantity of new pages associated with the document over time versus a total quantity of pages associated with the document;

a set of instructions to generate a score for the document based on the measure of how the content of the document changes over time; and

a set of instructions to rank the document with regard to at least one other document based on the score.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, where the update frequency is based on an average time between updates of the content of the document.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, where the set of instructions to generate the score for the document includes:

a set of instructions to generate the score for the document based on whether there is an increase or a decrease in a rate of change in the content of the document.