Google’s Criteria for Ranking Stories on Google News
While standard searches can rely on ranks calculated on a less frequent basis, news search ranks must be updated very frequently in order to stay up-to-date with the constant stream of new information. Google News has become the largest news source on the internet, gathering and spreading news from around the world. On a weekly basis, Google News receives stories from over 50,000 different news sources and is accessed by over 1 billion users. A recent patent by Google provides some insight on the criteria that Google uses when ranking different news stories. The author of this article interprets these criteria and describes their implications.
Google has said that the ideas described in the patent were merely prospective and did not confirm if any of the specific criteria are used, but it is likely that many of these criteria are implemented in their news ranking. Some of the criteria described in the patent include how frequently the source publishes news, the relevance of the subject, the length of the story, the size of the staff working for the source, user habits, and a “breaking news score.” Google’s ability to control the content delivered to such a mass audience has drawn criticism from many skeptics, who may find this transparency comforting. The author also suggests that this information may affect the way news organizations are run, as the leaders may tailor their structure to achieve higher news rankings.
The full article can be found at: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2495365/business-intelligence/an-inside-look-at-google-s-news-ranking-algorithm.html?page=2