Google Plans to Rank News By Quality

Patents recently filed by search giant Google reveal that it plans to soon rank news stories by the quality and credibility of the source, rather than just by date or relevance as it currently does in its searches.

Presently, entering a search term such as "Longhorn" into Google's news search will not only return articles from more reputable and established news sites, but also from Web logs and enthusiast sites as well. Google's current methods do not consider reputation and will instead bring up more recent or keyword relevant information regardless of source.

The patent calls for the building of a database that will track certain aspects of news organizations to determine a ranking. Some of the factors taken into account include the size of the organization, average story length, number of citations to the story, and Web traffic into the site.

The methods within the patent may eventually make it into other applications the company is developing, or into its searches other than news.

In recent months, more and more Web logs and enthusiast sites have made their way into Google's news listings, which sometimes can include inaccurate or biased information. The patent is ostensibly an attempt by Google to fix this problem and make its news more useful to its visitors.