Systems and methods for content processing

• US 9,940,099 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2014
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Media, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Maria Renhui, D'Aloisio-Montilla, Nicholas, Lu, Qichu
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CAM LINH T
• Application Number:
  US14/147,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20150193440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: 707748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be used to gather, rank, categorize, and perform other processing of various types of content. In some embodiments, content items such as text, images, video, and other content are received from a variety of different sources and are processed to generate an article containing selected content items. While there may be hundreds or thousands of separate articles and stories regarding a particular topic, embodiments of the present disclosure help provide users with a single concise article that contains high-quality content items selected from among a potentially vast number of disparate sources.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a plurality of content items related to a topic, the plurality of content items comprising a single content item including a first quote and a second quote;

analyzing, by the computer system, the single content item to identify;

the first quote, the second quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information for the first named entity;

ranking the plurality of content items;

selecting a subset of content items from the plurality of content items based on the respective ranking of each content item;

ranking the first quote and the second quote within the single content item, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the single content item;

generating an article related to the topic, wherein the article includes the selected subset of content items, and the article further includes the first quote based on the ranking of the first quote; and

transmitting the article to a computing device of a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the article further includes the first named entity and the first information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected subset of content items in the article includes the single content item.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items includes at least one of:

text, an image, video, audio, a map, a uniform resource locator, a graph, a slideshow, an article, or a file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items is received from a plurality of content sources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking each respective content item of the plurality of content items is based on at least one of:

a popularity level of the respective content item, an age of the respective content item, a size of the respective content item, an author associated with the respective content item, a publisher associated with the respective content item, or a quality rating of the respective content item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of content items includes selecting a first content item in a first format and a second content item in a second format, wherein the first content item has the highest ranking of any of the plurality of content items in the first format, and the second content item has the highest ranking of any of the plurality of content items in the second format.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the article includes ordering and positioning the selected subset of content items within the article based on the respective rankings of each respective content item in the subset.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the analyzing the single content item further comprises identifying a second named entity that is the source of the second quote, and second information regarding the second named entity; and

the article further includes, based on the ranking of the first quote, the first named entity and the first information in the article.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first named entity and the second named entity are identical, and wherein the first information regarding the first named entity and the second information regarding the second named entity are identical.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is further based at least partially on a number of respective occurrences of the first quote and the second quote within content items other than the single content item.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is further based at least partially on respective lengths of the first quote and the second quote.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote further based at least partially on the length of the first quote being longer than a predetermined number of words and being shorter than the length of the second quote.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the ranking of the first quote and the second quote is further based at least partially on respective amounts of information regarding the first named entity and the second named entity.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the first named entity includes performing a coreference resolution on at least the single content item.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the first named entity includes identifying all available information pertaining to the first named entity contained within at least the single content item.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the first named entity includes selecting a subset of available information pertaining to the first named entity contained within at least the single content item.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the information regarding the first named entity includes obtaining information from a source other than the single content item.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content items includes a first content item that is extracted from a second content item.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to:

receive a plurality of content items related to a topic, the plurality of content items comprising a single content item including a first quote and a second quote;

analyze the single content item to identify;

the first quote, the second quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information for the first named entity;

rank the plurality of content items;

select a subset of content items from the plurality of content items based on the respective ranking of each content item;

rank the first quote and the second quote within the single content item, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the single content item;

generate an article related to the topic, wherein the article includes the selected subset of content items, and the article further includes the first quote based on the ranking of the first quote; and

transmit the article to a computing device of a user.

21. A system comprising:

a processor; and

memory in communication with the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to;

receive a plurality of content items related to a topic, the plurality of content items comprising a single content item including a first quote and a second quote;

analyze the single content item to identify;

the first quote, the second quote, a first named entity that is the source of the first quote, and first information for the first named entity;

rank the plurality of content items;

select a subset of content items from the plurality of content items based on the respective ranking of each content item;

rank the first quote and the second quote within the single content item, wherein the first quote is ranked higher than the second quote, the ranking based at least partially on respective positions of the first quote and the second quote within the single content item;

generate an article related to the topic, wherein the article includes the selected subset of content items, and the article further includes the first quote based on the ranking of the first quote; and

transmit the article to a computing device of a user.