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Web search leader Google Inc. has applied for U.S. and international patents on technology to rank stories on its news site based on the quality of the news source, according to patent applications obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
Google filed its U.S. patent application in September 2003 and it is in line for review by patent examiners. It covers "systems and methods for improving the ranking of news articles" based on the "quality" of the news source.
According to that patent application, factors determining such rankings would include: the amount of important coverage produced by an identified news source; a human opinion of that source; network traffic to the source; circulation statistics; staff size; breadth of coverage; and the number of bureaus the news source operates.
Online news has become an increasingly competitive market as newspaper circulation declines and mainstream news organizations look for ways to hold on to readers, many of whom favor sites that gather stories from many sources over those run by a single news outlet.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050505/wr_nm/tech_google_patent_dc_3&printer=1