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Google filed a patent application last year to refine their news-ranking algorithm for third time in the past nine years. The Google News algorithm has long been a mystery, with few details publicly available. Computerworld uncovered the document "while conducting an unrelated patent search on the United States Patent Office's website." Nice find, huh? The patent application provides a rare look at the underpinnings of the Google News machine, including specific criteria Google uses to rank news stories:
The metrics cited in the patent application include: the number of articles produced by a news organization during a given time period; the average length of an article from a news source; and the importance of coverage from the news source.
Other metrics include a breaking news score, usage patterns, human opinion, circulation statistics and the size of the staff associated with a particular news operation.
Also factored in are the number of news bureaus a news source has, the number of original named entities used in stories, breadth of coverage, international diversity and even writing style.
An inside look at Google's news-ranking algorithm via Computerworld
Google continually refines its news algorithm, and it remains a Powerhouse-with-a-capital-P distribution platform for news content. According to the Atlantic:
Google News "algorithmically harvests" articles from more than 50,000 news sources across 72 editions and 30 languages. And Google News-powered results, Google says, are viewed by about 1 billion unique users a week. (Yep, that's billion with a b.) Which translates, for news outlets overall, to more than 4 billion clicks each month: 1 billion from Google News itself and an additional 3 billion from web search.
Google News at 10: How the Algorithm Won Over the News Industry via The Atlantic
Huge numbers, and a huge audience for which Googleserves as the algorithmic Editor-in-Chief. But as the journalism and publishing landscape changes, it raises questions about which metrics are most accurate and effective to automatically filter and highlight news content. Ultimately, the answer will be a combination of science and social.
