Google system would measure news source quality, credibility

Google has filed for patents for a new system to improve Google News searches by comparing the track records and credibility of news sources and factoring them into the search results.

The New Scientist says Google will build a database of news source crediblity "by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business. Google's database will also keep track of the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

"Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news search."

Apr 30, 2005 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(1)

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1 comments about 'Google system would measure news source quality, credibility'

It's very likely that some/many/none of the concepts mentioned in the patent are already in place at Google News? Why?

The New Scientist article fails to mention that the patent application was filed almost 1.5 years ago and is now just being published.

Details and a link to the patent here:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050428-130820

Posted by gary price at May 1, 2005 10:02 AM

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