Identification and ranking of news stories of interest

• US 9,405,805 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2014
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Sharad
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Susan
• Application Number:
  US14/163,266
• Publication Number:
  US 20140143259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for ranking news articles. A plurality of news articles referenced in one or more hub pages are identified, where each of the hub pages include respective references to one or more of the news articles. A score component is derived for a news article from a measure of a prominence of the news article in the hub pages that includes a reference to the news article.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more computers, the method comprising:

identifying two or more pages as hub pages based on a determination that the two or more pages each include at least a threshold number of hyperlinks to online content, including identifying a set of pages as hub pages based, at least in part, on each page in the set including hyperlinks to online content presented on a different page;

identifying, within a first hub page, a first location of a first hyperlink to a particular portion of online content that is presented on a source page;

identifying, within a second hub page, a second location of a second hyperlink to the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page;

determining, based on the first location within the first hub page and the second location within the second hub page, a score for the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page, wherein determining the score for the particular portion of online content comprises determining the score for the particular online content based at least in part on scores corresponding to one of an amount of text presented with hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, font sizes of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, formatting of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the portion of online content, or presentation of an image with the hyperlinks; and

providing data specifying the score for the particular online content.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

selecting, based on the score, a particular presentation position for a third hyperlink to the particular portion of online content;

receiving a search query related to the particular portion of online content; and

generating, in response to the received query, a search results page that includes the third hyperlink to the particular portion of content at the particular presentation position based on the score.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying a first quality score for the first hub page; and

identifying a second quality score for the second hub page, wherein;

determining the score for the particular online content comprises determining the score based on the first location, the second location, the quality score for the first hub page, and the quality score for the second hub page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a first location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the first hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a first relative distance between the first location and the most prominent location of the first hub page.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying a second location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the second hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a second relative distance between the second location and the most prominent location of the second hub page.

6. A system, comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer storage device storing instructions that upon execution by the one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

identifying two or more pages as hub pages based on a determination that the two or more pages each include at least a threshold number of hyperlinks to online content, including identifying a set of pages as hub pages based, at least in part, on each page in the set including hyperlinks to online content presented on a different page;

identifying, within a first hub page, a first location of a first hyperlink to a particular portion of online content that is presented on a source page;

identifying, within a second hub page, a second location of a second hyperlink to the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page;

determining, based on the first location within the first hub page and the second location within the second hub page, a score for the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page, wherein determining the score for the particular portion of online content comprises determining the score for the particular online content based at least in part on scores corresponding to one of an amount of text presented with hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, font sizes of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, formatting of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the portion of online content, or presentation of an image with the hyperlinks; and

providing data specifying the score for the particular online content.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computers to perform operations including:

selecting, based on the score, a particular presentation position for a third hyperlink to the particular portion of online content;

receiving a search query related to the particular portion of online content; and

generating, in response to the received query, a search results page that includes the third hyperlink to the particular portion of content at the particular presentation position based on the score.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computers to perform operations including:

identifying a first quality score for the first hub page; and

identifying a second quality score for the second hub page, wherein;

determining the score for the particular online content comprises determining the score based on the first location, the second location, the quality score for the first hub page, and the quality score for the second hub page.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying a first location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the first hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a first relative distance between the first location and the most prominent location of the first hub page.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein identifying a second location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the second hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a second relative distance between the second location and the most prominent location of the second hub page.

11. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

identifying two or more pages as hub pages based on a determination that the two or more pages each include at least a threshold number of hyperlinks to online content, including

identifying a set of pages as hub pages based, at least in part, on each page in the set including hyperlinks to news articles that are presented on a different page;

identifying, within a first hub page, a first location of a first hyperlink to a particular portion of online content that is presented on a source page;

identifying, within a second hub page, a second location of a second hyperlink to the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page;

determining, based on the first location within the first hub page and the second location within the second hub page, a score for the particular portion of online content that is presented at the source page, wherein determining the score for the particular portion of online content comprises determining the score for the particular online content based at least in part on scores corresponding to one of an amount of text presented with hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, font sizes of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the particular portion of online content, formatting of the text presented with the hyperlinks to the portion of online content, or presentation of an image with the hyperlinks; and

providing data specifying the score for the particular online content.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computers to perform operations including:

selecting, based on the score, a particular presentation position for a third hyperlink to the particular portion of online content;

receiving a search query related to the particular portion of online content; and

generating, in response to the received query, a search results page that includes a link to the particular portion of content at one of multiple different presentation locations based on the score.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computers to perform operations including:

identifying a first quality score for the first hub page; and

identifying a second quality score for the second hub page, wherein;

determining the score for the particular online content comprises determining the score based on the first location, the second location, the quality score for the first hub page, and the quality score for the second hub page.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein identifying a first location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the first hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a first relative distance between the first location and the most prominent location of the first hub page.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 14, wherein identifying a second location of a first hyperlink comprises:

identifying a most prominent location of the second hub page at which a hyperlink is presented; and

identifying a second relative distance between the second location and the most prominent location of the second hub page.