METHODS, APPARATUS, AND ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE TO RANK WEB SITE INFLUENCE

• US 20140040250A1
• Filed: 10/11/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation), Buzzmetrics, Ltd. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Krichman, Yakir, Greitzer, Eliyahu
• Granted Patent: US 9,218,421 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to rank a web site are disclosed herein. An example method to rank the influence of a web site includes accessing a query based on a topic term, determining topic specific posts by applying the query to a first plurality of posts to a web site, comparing the topic specific posts to a list of web sites to determine a topic volume per site, determining a plurality of inbound links to the first plurality of posts, determining a number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term by comparing the topic volume per site and the inbound links, and generating a rank of the web site based on the number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term and times between the inbound links.

Claims

1. A method to rank the influence of a web site, comprising:

accessing a query based on a topic term;

determining topic specific posts by applying the query to a first plurality of posts to a web site;

comparing the topic specific posts to a list of web sites to determine a topic volume per site;

determining a plurality of inbound links to the first plurality of posts;

determining a number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term by comparing the topic volume per site and the inbound links; and

generating a rank of the web site based on the number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term and times between the inbound links.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising calculating elapsed times between postings of adjacent ones of the inbound links by:

determining posting times of posts that are relevant to the topic term;

comparing the posting times to the inbound links to determine a list of inbound links and posting times of the inbound links; and

comparing the posting times of the inbound links to the topic specific posts to generate a list of inbound links, posting times, and posts associated with the inbound links and the posting times.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, further comprising calculating a median elapsed time by removing an outlier from a list of (1) inbound links, (2) posting times, and (3) posts associated with the inbound links and the posting times.

4. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the comparing comprises a join operation.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving at least a portion of the plurality of inbound links from a web site monitor.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the received portion of the plurality of inbound links comprises posts having a number of inbound links that is greater than a threshold.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining a number of unique visitors to the web site, wherein the rank is based on the number of unique visitors.

8. An apparatus to rank an influence of a web site, comprising:

an authority determiner to determine a number of inbound links to a web site, the web site comprising posts that are associated with a topic;

a virality determiner to calculate elapsed times between time adjacent posts that are relevant to the topic; and

a web site ranker to determine a rank of the web site based on the number of inbound links and times between adjacent ones of the inbound links.

9. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

access a query based on a topic term;

determine topic specific posts by applying the query to a first plurality of posts to a web site;

compare the topic specific posts to a list of web sites to determine a topic volume per site;

determine a plurality of inbound links to the first plurality of posts;

determine a number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term by comparing the topic volume per site and the inbound links; and

generate a rank of the web site based on the number of inbound links to the posts that are relevant to the topic term and times between the inbound links.

10. A storage medium as defined in claim 9, further comprising calculating elapsed times between postings of adjacent ones of the inbound links by:

determining posting times of posts that are relevant to the topic term;

comparing the posting times to the inbound links to determine a list of inbound links and posting times of the inbound links; and

comparing the posting times of the inbound links to the topic specific posts to generate a list of inbound links, posting times, and posts associated with the inbound links and the posting times.

11. A storage medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to further cause the processor to calculate a median elapsed time by removing an outlier from a list of (1) inbound links, (2) posting times, and (3) posts associated with the inbound links and the posting times.

12. A storage medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to perform comparing using a join operation.

13. A storage medium as defined in claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of inbound links are received from a web site monitor.

14. A storage medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the received portion of the plurality of inbound links comprises posts having a number of inbound links that is greater than a threshold.

15. A storage medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the instructions are to further cause the processor to determine a number of unique visitors to the web site, wherein the rank is based on the number of unique visitors.