Adjusting search result rankings based on multiple user highlighting of documents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9244891-B2
Application number	US-201314045029-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2013
Priority date	Jan 31, 2007
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

A system may aggregate highlighting information associated with a document that includes a number of elements. The highlighting information may identify one or more of the elements that have been highlighted by a group of users. The system may determine weight values for the one or more elements, generate information associated with the document based on the weight values, and provide the information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method:
receiving (i) data identifying one or more first portions of a document highlighted by a first user, and (ii) data identifying one or more second portions of the document highlighted by a different, second user;
in response to receiving (i) the data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and (ii) the data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user, generating one or more weights for one or more portions of the document that were highlighted, the one or more weights indicating a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document;
generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user; and
providing the summary to a search engine that is configured to adjust search result rankings based on the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user as indicated by the summary.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
generating the summary based on the received (i) data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and the received (ii) data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
including in the summary the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and different, second user and one or more indications of a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user and the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user do not overlap.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user and the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user at least partially overlap.

6. A system comprising:
one or more computers; and
one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving (i) data identifying one or more first portions of a document highlighted by a first user, and (ii) data identifying one or more second portions of the document highlighted by a different, second user;

in response to receiving (i) the data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and (ii) the data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user, generating one or more weights for one or more portions of the document that were highlighted, the one or more weights indicating a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document;
generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user; and
providing the summary to a search engine that is configured to adjust search result rankings based on the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user as indicated by the summary.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
generating the summary based on the received (i) data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and the received (ii) data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
including in the summary the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and different, second user and one or more indications of a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user and the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user do not overlap.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user and the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user at least partially overlap.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving (i) data identifying one or more first portions of a document highlighted by a first user, and (ii) data identifying one or more second portions of the document highlighted by a different, second user;
in response to receiving (i) the data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and (ii) the data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user, generating one or more weights for one or more portions of the document that were highlighted, the one or more weights indicating a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document;
generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user; and
providing the summary to a search engine that is configured to adjust search result rankings based on the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user as indicated by the summary.

12. The medium of claim 11 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
generating the summary based on the received (i) data identifying the one or more first portions of the document highlighted by the first user, and the received (ii) data identifying the one or more second portions of the document highlighted by the different, second user.

13. The medium of claim 11 , wherein generating a summary that indicates the one or more weights of the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and the different, second user comprises:
including in the summary the one or more portions of the document that were highlighted by the first user and different, second user and one or more indications of a number of users that highlighted the one or more portions of the document.

14. The medium

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Cierniak Michal
• Stoppelman Michael
• Gomes Benedict A
• Anderson Corin

Classifications

• G06F40/103 Primary

  Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents (automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191) · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/338 Primary

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F17/211 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30696

  Physics · mapped topic