Scoring documents in a linked database

• US 8,725,726 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Inventors: Page, Lawrence
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US13/616,965
• Time in Patent Office: 606 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/726
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

A method assigns importance ranks to nodes in a linked database, such as any database of documents containing citations, the world wide web or any other hypermedia database. The rank assigned to a document is calculated from the ranks of documents citing it. In addition, the rank of a document is calculated from a constant representing the probability that a browser through the database will randomly jump to the document. The method is particularly useful in enhancing the performance of search engine results for hypermedia databases, such as the world wide web, whose documents have a large variation in quality.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a search query that includes a search term;

identifying, by the computer, a plurality of documents that include the search term;

identifying, by the computer, anchor text that matches the search term,

the anchor text being included in a first document of the plurality of documents,

the anchor text corresponding to a link that points to a second document, and

the second document not being one of the plurality of documents;

generating, by the computer, a list of documents that includes information regarding the plurality of documents and the second document; and

providing, by the computer, the list of documents.

2. The method of claim 1, where the anchor text is first anchor text and the link is a first link,

the method further comprising:

identifying text, in an immediate vicinity of second anchor text, that matches the search term,

the second anchor text being included in a third document of the plurality of documents,

the second anchor text corresponding to a second link that points to a fourth document, and

the fourth document not being one of the plurality of documents;

where generating the list of documents includes;

generating the list of documents to include information regarding the plurality of documents, the second document, and the fourth document.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning an initial score to each of the plurality of documents, the initial score, for one of the plurality of documents, being set to a particular value;

performing a process to generate a score for each of the plurality of documents based on the initial score,

the process being performed for a plurality of iterations,

the score for the one of the plurality of documents being generated based on the initial score assigned to the one of the plurality of documents and scores for one or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that include a link to the one of the plurality of documents; and

ranking the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the scores for the plurality of documents.

4. The method of claim 3, where ranking of the plurality of documents is further based on a matching of respective text of the plurality of documents to the search term of the search query.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining scores for the plurality of documents; and

ranking the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the scores for the plurality of documents.

6. The method of claim 5, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on scores of documents that include links to the one of the plurality of documents.

7. The method of claim 5, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on scores of documents that include links to the one of the plurality of documents and weights assigned to the links,

one of the weights, assigned to one of the links, being based on a measure of importance of the one of the links.

8. The method of claim 5, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on whether the one of the plurality of documents corresponds to a home page of a user associated with the search query.

9. The method of claim 5, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on whether the one of the plurality of documents corresponds to a document bookmarked by a user associated with the search query.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying categories associated with the plurality of documents;

organizing the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the identified categories associated with the plurality of documents,

two or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that are associated with a same one of the identified categories, being grouped together within the list of documents.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying web sites associated with the plurality of documents;

organizing the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the identified web sites associated with the plurality of documents,

two or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that are associated with a same one of the identified web sites, being grouped together within the list of documents.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a search query that includes a search term;

identifying, by the computer, a plurality of documents that include the search term;

identifying, by the computer, anchor text or text in an immediate vicinity of the anchor text that matches the search term,

the anchor text and the text in the immediate vicinity of the anchor text being included in a first document of the plurality of documents,

the anchor text corresponding to a link that points to a second document, and

the second document not being one of the plurality of documents;

generating, by the computer, a list of documents that includes information regarding the plurality of documents and the second document; and

providing, by the computer, the list of documents.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

assigning an initial score to each of the plurality of documents,

the initial score, for one of the plurality of documents, being set to a particular value;

performing a process to generate a score for each of the plurality of documents based on the initial score,

the process being performed for a plurality of iterations,

the score for the one of the plurality of documents being generated based on the initial score assigned to the one of the plurality of documents and scores for one or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that include a link to the one of the plurality of documents; and

ranking the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the scores for the plurality of documents.

14. The method of claim 13, where ranking of the plurality of documents is further based on a matching of respective text of the plurality of documents to the search term of the search query.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining scores for the plurality of documents; and

ranking the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the scores for the plurality of documents.

16. The method of claim 15, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on scores of documents that include links to the one of the plurality of documents.

17. The method of claim 15, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on scores of documents that include links to the one of the plurality of documents and weights assigned to the links,

one of the weights, assigned to one of the links, being based on a server or a domain associated with the one of the links.

18. The method of claim 15, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on whether the one of the plurality of documents corresponds to a home page of a user associated with the search query.

19. The method of claim 15, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on whether the one of the plurality of documents corresponds to a document bookmarked by a user associated with the search query.

20. The method of claim 15, where the score, for one of the plurality of documents, is based on whether the one of the plurality of documents relates to an interest of a user associated with the search query.

21. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying categories associated with the plurality of documents;

organizing the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the identified categories associated with the plurality of documents,

two or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that are associated with a same one of the identified categories, being grouped together within the list of documents.

22. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying web sites associated with the plurality of documents;

organizing the plurality of documents, in the list of documents, based on the identified web sites associated with the plurality of documents,

two or more documents, of the plurality of documents, that are associated with a same one of the identified web sites, being grouped together within the list of documents.