This week, the Guardian UK has a brief and informative overview of Google’s search algorithm for its News product.
But how exactly does Google News work? What kind of media does its algorithm favour most? Last week, the search giant updated its patent filing with a new document detailing the 13 metrics it uses to retrieve and rank articles and sources for its news service. …
What follows is a summary of those metrics, listed in the order shown in the patent filing, along with a subjective appreciation of their reliability, vulnerability to cheating, relevancy, etc.
Neat stuff! Check it out: Frederic Filloux, Google News: the secret sauce, The Guardian, Feb. 25, 2013.
I talked about the “secret sauce” of big-box search in the fall during research labs. It’s a tired metaphor, but I think it works well here because once you look at the ingredients of Google’s ranking system, it makes quite a bit of sense (even if you couldn’t replicate it in your own kitchen.) These types of sophisticated algorithms are fantastic tools in the right context, and the article above give you a little peek into how one of them works.
Via beSpacific.com