External verification of content popularity

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processing device, operatively coupled to with the memory, to:
• create a preliminary list of content items served via a content sharing service, wherein the content items in the preliminary list are ranked based on a number of accesses for each respective content item via the content sharing service;
• verify popularity of the ranked content items on the preliminary list using external content distribution sources that are external to the content sharing service, wherein to verify the popularity of the ranked content items on the preliminary list, the processing device is to:
• identify content items being served by the external content distribution sources;
• and
• determine whether a ranked content item on the preliminary list matches any of the content items served by the external content distribution sources;
• update the preliminary list to remove content items that do not match any of the content items served by the external content distribution sources;
• and
• provide an updated list of content items whose popularity is verified via the external content distribution sources for presentation to a plurality of users of the content sharing service, wherein content items of the updated list of content items match at least one content item served by the external content distribution sources and the updated list is based on a number of the external content distribution sources serving a respective content item of the content items of the updated list.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising:

• creating a preliminary list of content items served via a content sharing service, wherein the content items in the preliminary list are ranked based on a number of accesses for each respective content item via the content sharing service;
• verifying popularity of the ranked content items on the preliminary list using external content distribution sources that are external to the content sharing service, wherein verifying the popularity of the ranked content items on the preliminary list comprises:
• identifying content items being served by the external content distribution sources;
• and
• determining whether a ranked content item on the preliminary list matches any of the content items served by the external content distribution sources;
• updating the preliminary list to remove content items that do not match any of the content items served by the external content distribution sources;
• and
• providing an updated list of content items whose popularity is verified via the external content distribution sources for presentation to a plurality of users of the content sharing service, wherein content items of the updated list of content items match at least one content item served by the external content distribution sources and the updated list is based on a number of the external content distribution sources serving a respective content item of the content items of the updated list.