Automated news digest

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• accessing a database storing news snapshots, each snapshot identifying a predetermined quantity of top news stories for a respective period of time, wherein the respective period of time for each snapshot is different from the respective period of time for each of the other snapshots, each of the top news stories in a particular snapshot for a particular period of time a) ranked according to an importance score that measures the importance of the news story relative to other news stories for the particular period of time and b) represented by one or more articles that describe the top news story, each of the periods of time having a predetermined length;
• determining a digest time period that includes at least two or more of the periods of time, wherein the predetermined length for each of the two or more periods of time is shorter than a length for the digest time period;
• determining, for the digest time period by accessing the database, all of the two or more snapshots with periods of time included in the digest time period;
• generating, from the top news stories in the determined two or more snapshots, a digest ranking of digest news stories for the digest time period using the importance scores for each of the top news stores included in the determined two or more snapshots;
• and
• providing, to a user device, data identifying a plurality of the digest news stories, the plurality of the digest news stories including two or more top news story from at least two or more of the snapshots, to cause the user device to present the plurality of digest news stories according to the digest ranking, the data identifying the plurality of digest news stories including, for each of the respective news stories, a title and data for at least one of the articles that describes the respective news story, and, for each digest news story, data identifying the respective period of time from which the digest news story is the top news story for the snapshot;
• determining, for a particular geographic region from a group of two or more geographic regions for which snapshots are generated, a quantity of news stories generated during a particular time period;
• determining that the quantity of news stories satisfies a threshold quantity;
• in response to determining that the quantity of news stories satisfies the threshold quantity, determining an updated length for a period of time to use when generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region;
• and
• in response to determining the updated length for a period of time to use when generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region, generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region that has a period of time with the updated length that is a different length than a length used to generate a preceding snapshot prior to the new snapshot.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• accessing a database storing news snapshots, each snapshot identifying a predetermined quantity of top news stories for a respective period of time, wherein the respective period of time for each snapshot is different from the respective period of time for each of the other snapshots, each of the top news stories in a particular snapshot for a particular period of time a) ranked according to an importance score that measures the importance of the news story relative to other news stories for the particular period of time and b) represented by one or more articles that describe the top news story, each of the periods of time having a predetermined length;
• determining a digest time period that includes at least two or more of the periods of time, wherein the predetermined length for each of the two or more periods of time is shorter than a length for the digest time period;
• determining, for the digest time period by accessing the database, all of the two or more snapshots with periods of time included in the digest time period;
• generating, from the top news stories in the determined two or more snapshots, a digest ranking of digest news stories for the digest time period using the importance scores for each of the top news stores included in the determined two or more snapshots;
• and
• providing, to a user device, data identifying a plurality of the digest news stories, the plurality of the digest news stories including two or more top news story from at least two or more of the snapshots, to cause the user device to present the plurality of digest news stories according to the digest ranking, the data identifying the plurality of digest news stories including, for each of the respective news stories, a title and data for at least one of the articles that describes the respective news story, and, for each digest news story, data identifying the respective period of time from which the digest news story is the top news story for the snapshot;
• determining, for a particular geographic region from a group of two or more geographic regions for which snapshots are generated, a quantity of news stories generated during a particular time period;
• determining that the quantity of news stories satisfies a threshold quantity;
• in response to determining that the quantity of news stories satisfies the threshold quantity, determining an updated length for a period of time to use when generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region;
• and
• in response to determining the updated length for a period of time to use when generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region, generating a new snapshot for the particular geographic region that has a period of time with the updated length that is a different length than a length used to generate a preceding snapshot prior to the new snapshot.