Selective presentation of content types and sources in search

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9589303-B2
Application number	US-201313737245-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2013
Priority date	Jan 9, 2012
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

Implementations of the present disclosure include actions of receiving a search query, identifying potential search results responsive to the search query, the potential search results corresponding to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, determining that the potential search results include user-generated content that is generated using one or more computer-implemented social services, receiving data associated with the user-generated content, the data including one or more scores, determining, based on the one or more scores, that the user-generated content is to be provided as a search result, generating search results, the search results including web-based search results and at least a portion of the user-generated content, and transmitting the search results to a client computing device for display to the searching user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, a search query;
receiving, by one or more processors, an identifier associated with a user that submitted the search query;
identifying, by the one or more processors, potential search results responsive to the search query, the potential search results corresponding to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media; and
determining, by the one or more processors and at least partly based on the identifier, that the potential search results comprise user-generated content that is generated using one or more social computer-implemented services and is associated with a social graph of the user, the social graph of the user comprising a collection of connections identified as having a relationship to the user, and that the user is allowed to access the user-generated content based on respective access controls applied to the user-generated content by authors thereof, the user-generated content comprising one or more content items, and in response:
receiving, by the one or more processors, data associated with the user-generated content, the data comprising one or more scores associated with respective content items, at least one score being specific to the user and a respective content item,
for at least one content item, determining a time difference based on a timestamp associated with the at least one content item, the time difference indicating how recently the at least one content item was active, and determining, based on the time difference and the one or more scores, that the at least one content item is to be provided as a search result,
receiving, by the one or more processors, search results, the search results comprising web-based search results and the at least one content item, and
transmitting, by the one or more processors, the search results to a client computing device for display to the searching user, a display location of the at least one content item with respect to the web-based search results is at least partly determined by one or more scores associated with the at least one content item.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that a topicality score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to a threshold topicality score, the topicality score being included in the one or more scores, wherein determining that the at least one content item is to be provided as a search result occurs in response to determining that the topicality score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to the threshold topicality score.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the topicality score indicates a degree to which the at least one content item pertains to the search query.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the topicality score indicates a degree to which the at least one content item pertains to a matter of interest.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining that the at least one content item is recently generated content, wherein determining that the topicality score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to the threshold topicality score occurs in response to determining that the at least one content item is recently generated content.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining that the search query is a trending search query; and
determining that the at least one content item is recently generated content, wherein determining that the topicality score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to the threshold topicality score occurs in response to determining that the search query is a trending search query and determining that the at least one content item is recently generated content.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that an overall score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to a threshold overall score, the overall score being included in the one or more scores, wherein determining that the at least one content item is to be provided as a search result occurs in response to determining that the overall score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to the threshold overall score.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining that the search query is not a trending search query, wherein determining that the overall score associated with the at least one content item is greater than or equal to the threshold overall score occurs in response to determining that the search query is not a trending search query.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the overall score reflects a quality of the at least one content item and a relevance of the at least one content item to the searching user.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the at least one content item comprises a digital image; and
determining that the digital image is to be displayed within an image search results portion of the search results.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising determining that the at least one content item is without text associated with the digital image, wherein determining that the digital image is to be displayed within the image search results portion of the search results occurs in response to determining that the at least one content item is without text associated with the digital image.

12. A system comprising:
one or more computers configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving a search query;
receiving an identifier associated with a user that submitted the search query;
identifying potential search results responsive to the search query, the potential search results corresponding to digital content stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;
determining, by the one or more processors and at least partly based on the identifier, that the potential search results comprise user-generated content that is generated using one or more social computer-implemented services and is associated with a social graph of the user, the social graph of the user comprising a collection of connections identified as having a relationship to the user, and that the user is allowed to access the user-generated content based on respective access controls applied to the user-generated content by authors thereof, the user-generated content comprising one or more content items, and in response:
receiving, by the one or more processors, data associated with the user-generated content, the data comprising one or more scores associated with respective content items, at least one score being specific to the user and a respective content item,
for at least one content item, determining a time difference based on a timestamp associated with the at least one content item, the time difference indicating how recently the at least one content item was active, and determining, based on the time difference and the one or more scores, that the at least one content item is to be provided as a search result,
receiving, by the one or more processors, search results, the search results comprising web-based search results and the at least one content item, and
transmitting, by the one or more processors, the search results to a client computing device for display to the searching user, a display location of the at least one content item with respect to the web-based search results is at least partly determined by one or more scores associated with the at least one content item.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein operations further comprise determining

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Belov Daniel
• Kulick Matthew E
• Bursey Adam D
• Yen David
• Heymans Maureen

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06F16/50

  of still image data · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title