Using social-network data for identification and ranking of URLs

• US 9,292,607 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2011
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Parthasarathy, Sasi, Ahmed, Junaid, Sun, Walter, Li, Jingfeng, Dow, Paul Alexander, Siamwalla, Yajie
• Primary Examiner(s): HUANG, MIRANDA M
• Application Number:
  US13/196,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150833A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for updating a search index with new uniform resource locators (URLs) and with metadata for new and known URLs. Data associated with communications made by users using a social network is received. The communications include a URL therein that a user has shared, posted, or otherwise communicated to one or more other users using the social network. When the URL is not found in a search index it is identified as a new URL and is added to the search index. A measure of a trending interest, or virality, of the URL is determined from the data. The determined virality is associated with the URL in a search index as metadata. The virality is useable to inform a ranking of the URL against a plurality of other URLs for identification and presentation as a search result in a search engine results page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying and ranking new URLs (uniform resource locator), the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device having a processor and a memory, social-signal data from a social network, the social-signal data associated with communications made by users of the social network on the social network;

identifying a URL included in the social-signal data, wherein the URL is communicated by a user of the social network to one or more other users of the social network in the communication;

determining that the URL is a new URL based on the URL not being included in at least one search index of a search engine, wherein the at least one search index is used by the search engine to provide search results;

adding the URL to the at least one search index;

determining a virality of the new URL on the social network based on the received social-signal data, the virality being a measure of the communications made by the users of the social network referencing the URL on the social network during a period of time over a total number of communications made by users of the social network during the period of time; and

storing the virality as metadata for the URL in the at least one search index;

receiving a search query for which the URL is a search result candidate;

ranking the URL against a plurality of other search results candidates based at least partially on the virality; and

providing the URL for presentation as a search result on a search engine results page with respect to the ranking, wherein presentation of the URL as a search result on the search engine results page includes presentation of an indication of the measure of the communications made by the users referencing the URL.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a search query at the search engine;

identifying the URL as a search result for the search query;

ranking the URL against a plurality of other search results based at least partially on the virality; and

providing the URL for presentation as a search result based on the ranking.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the URL is presented in a search engine results page with one or more additional URLs included in the social-signal data as a group of URLs that are of interest to social network users.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the URL is presented in a search engine results page with an indication of one or more of an amount of communication of the URL by users using the social network, a type of communication of the URL by users using the social network, and a rate of change in the amount of communication of the URL by users using the social network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the virality of the URL further comprises:

determining a number of occurrences of the URL in the social-signal data over a period of time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the virality of the URL further comprises:

determining a change in the number of occurrences of the URL in the social-signal data over a period of time.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the change includes a rate of change.

8. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computing device having a processor, perform a method for ranking a URL (uniform resource locator) for placement on a search engine results page, the method comprising:

receiving social-signal data from a social network, the social-signal data associated with communications made by users using a social networking website;

identifying a URL included in the social-signal data, wherein the URL is communicated by a user of the social network to one or more other users of the social network in the communications;

determining that the URL is a new URL based on the URL not being included in at least one search index of a search engine, wherein the at least one search index is used by the search engine to provide search results;

adding the URL to the at least one search index;

determining a virality of the URL based on received social-signal data, the virality being a measure of the communications made by the users of the social network referencing the URL on the social networking website during a period of time over a total number of communications made by users of the social network during the period of time;

storing the virality as metadata for the URL in the at least one search index;

receiving a search query for which the URL is a search result candidate;

ranking the URL against a plurality of other search results candidates based at least partially on the virality; and

providing the URL for presentation as a search result on a search engine results page with respect to the ranking, wherein presentation of the URL as a search result on the search engine results page includes presentation of an indication of the measure of the communications made by the users referencing the URL.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the URL is a known URL that is already included in a search index.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the communications made by the users using the social networking website include one or more of an indication of interest in the URL, sharing the URL, and a post.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the URL is included in the communication in a shortened URL form.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the URL is included in the communication as a link.

13. A system for updating a search index with new URLs (uniform resource locator) and with metadata indicating a virality of the new URLs and known URLs based on social-signal data associated with communications on a social networking website, the system comprising one or more computing devices having a processor and a memory and configured to provide:

a receiving component configured to receive from a social network, social-signal data associated with user communications made using a social networking website, the communications including a URL therein, wherein the URL is communicated by a user of the social network to one or more other users of the social network in the communication;

a new-URL identification component configured to determine that the URL is one of a new URL based on the URL not being included in a search index or a known URL that is included in the search index, and to add the new URL to the search index;

a virality-determining component configured to determine a measure of the communications made by the users of the social network referencing the URL on the social networking website during a period of time over a total number of communications made by users of the social network during the period of time and to store the measure as metadata for the URL in the search index; and

a ranking component configured to rank the URL against a plurality of other URLs based at least partially on the measure of the communications between users which reference the URL;

a searching component configured to receive a search query for which the URL is a search result candidate;

a search result ranking component configured to rank the URL against a plurality of other search results candidates based at least partially on the virality; and

a search result presentation component configured to providing the URL for presentation as a search result on a search engine results page with respect to the ranking, wherein presentation of the URL as a search result on the search engine results page includes presentation of an indication of the measure of the communications made by the users referencing the URL.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a search engine component configured to receive a search query for which the URL is a search result candidate and to provide the URL for presentation as a search result on a search engine results page based on the rank of the URL.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the measure includes a rate of change in a number of occurrences of the URL in the social-signal data over a period of time, and wherein the indication of the measure provides an indication of the rate.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein ranking the URL based at least partially on the measure of the communications associated with the URL on the social networking website incorporates a current level of interest in the URL into the ranking.