A patent application by Google aims to improve the results of its news searches by creating a news source credibility database.
Google's patent filing will let stories be ranked in quality and not just relevance to a topic. The new technology would assess the track record and quality of the news source, consider the length of a story, and include other variables like number of staff and web site traffic.
Currently, more recent stories rank highest, which means lesser-known sources on a story can outrank sites like the BBC in Google's News listings.
"Google is constantly thriving for better relevance in its searching and anything that improves the user experience is a good thing," said Julian Smith, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
The patent was filed in September of 2003 and has not been awarded yet. It is unclear whether some or all of the formulas in the patent application have already been implemented within Google News.
Read the full text of the patent here.
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.
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