Systems and methods for improving the ranking of news articles

• US 8,126,876 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2009
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Curtiss, Michael, Bharat, Krishna, Schmitt, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): PARDO, THUY N
• Application Number:
  US12/501,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276429A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/709, 707/748, 707/710, 707/721
• US Class Current: 707/721
• 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, performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a search query, from a client device;

generating, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices and in response to receiving the search query, a list of references to news articles;

identifying, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices and for each reference in the list of references, a news source with which each reference is associated;

determining, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices and for each identified news source, whether a news source rank exists;

determining, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices and for each reference with an existing corresponding news source rank, a new score by combining the news source rank and a score corresponding to a previous ranking of the reference; and

ranking, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the references in the list of references based, at least in part, on the new scores.

2. The method of claim 1, where determining whether each news source rank exists includes accessing a database to locate the news source rank.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the ranked list of references to the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, where determining the new score comprises:

determining, for each reference with an existing corresponding news source rank, a weighted sum of the news source rank and the score corresponding to the previous ranking of the reference.

5. The method of claim 1, where identifying the news source includes identifying the news source based on a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the reference.

6. The method of claim 1, where the list of references to news articles is not ranked.

7. A system comprising:

a database to associate quality values with information identifying news sources; and

a processor to;

generate a list of references to news articles, in response to receiving a query,

identify, for a first reference in the list of references, a news source with which the first reference is associated,

access the database to retrieve a quality value corresponding to the news source,

determine, for the first reference, a score by combining the quality value and a previous score corresponding to a previous ranking of the first reference, and

rank the first reference, with respect to other references in the list of references, based on the score, to produce an ordered list of references.

8. The system of claim 7, where the processor is further to:

identify, for a second reference of the list of references, a news source with which the second reference is associated;

access the database to retrieve a second quality value corresponding to the news source with which the second reference is associated; and

rank the second reference, with respect to other references in the list of references, based on the second quality value.

9. The system of claim 7, where the processor is further to:

provide the ordered list of references to a client device.

10. The system of claim 7, where, when determining the score, the processor is further to:

determine a weighted sum of the quality value and the previous score.

11. The system of claim 7, where, when identifying the news source, the processor is further to:

identify the news source based on a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the reference.

12. The system of claim 7, where the list of references is not ordered.

13. A computer-readable memory containing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the processor to:

generate a list of references to news articles, in response to receiving a query;

identify, for a reference of the list of references, a news source with which the first reference is associated;

retrieve a quality value corresponding to the news source, where the quality value is determined based at least in part by;

multiplying one or more metric values, associated with the news source, by a factor to create one or more adjusted metric values, and

adding the one or more adjusted metric values; and

rank the reference, with respect to other references in the list of references, based on the retrieved quality value.

14. The computer-readable memory device of claim 13, where the references include links to online news articles.

15. The computer-readable memory device of claim 14, where identifying the news source includes identifying the news source based on a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the link.

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 13, where retrieving the quality value includes retrieving the quality value from a database that associated quality values with information identifying news sources.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 13, where the metric values include:

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