# US 10,872,088 B2 · Domain based influence scoring > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,872,088 B2 - Document ID: US10872088B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/814,212 - Filed: 2017-11-15 - Published: 2018-08-02 - Granted: 2020-12-22 - Earliest claimed: 2017-01-30 - Assignees: Apple Inc. - Applicants: Apple Inc. - Inventors: Saravana Kumar Siva Kumaran - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10872088B2 ## CPC - G06F 16/24578: {using ranking} - G06F 16/90348: {by searching ordered data, e.g. alpha-numerically ordered data} - G06F 16/951: Indexing; Web crawling techniques - G06F 16/9535: Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation - G06F 16/9538: Presentation of query results - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Methods and systems that create domain influence scores that can be used to rank or sort search results are described. In one embodiment, a domain influence scoring system begins by preselecting a subset of the domains and allocating an initial influence score to only the domains in the subset while all other domains have an initial influence score of zero. Then links to pages are counted to update the influence scores of each domain. Further, one or more blacklists can be used to modify updating of the influence scores. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for creating domain influence scores that can be used to rank search results, the method comprising: obtaining a corpus of pages hosted by a set of domains, at least some of the pages including links to other pages; initializing a domain influence scoring system by allocating a predetermined initial influence score to each domain in a preselected subset of domains in the set of domains such that each domain in the preselected subset begins a process for deriving an updated influence score by having the predetermined initial influence score, which is greater than zero, while all other domains begin the process by having a zero initial influence score; and updating the influence scores for all domains in the set by counting the links to pages in the corpus. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the pages are web pages and a domain in the set of domains is defined by a set of web addresses or Uniform Resource Identifiers owned or controlled by an entity. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, the method comprising: crawling the Internet to obtain information on the corpus of pages including links to pages between domains within the corpus and storing the information, wherein the updating the influence scores further comprises calculating an influence score for a domain in the set using a count of the links to the pages between the domain and other domains within the corpus. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each page is a discreet set of content at a specified URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and wherein the preselected subset of domains is preselected at least in part by human selection. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein other domains not in the preselected subset of domains gain a non-zero influence score value during the process only through links from pages in domains that attain or have a non-zero influence score; and wherein the updating creates final influence scores which are saved and used to rank search results. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises: generating a blacklist of domains, the blacklist used while updating the influence scores for all domains, and the blacklist includes a list of blacklisted domains. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein during the updating, a link from a blacklisted domain to another domain does not add to an influence score value of the another domain. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein during the updating, a link from a non-blacklisted domain to a blacklisted domain results in a negative score being added to the influence score value of the non-blacklisted domain. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein authors within content posting domains are treated as domains separate from the host of the content posting domains. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, wherein the content posting domains include at least one of social media or social network web sites. ### Claim 11 A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions which when executed by one or more data processing systems cause the one or more systems to perform a method for creating domain influence scores that can be used to rank search results, the method comprising: obtaining a corpus of pages hosted by a set of domains, at least some of the pages including links to other pages; initializing a domain influence scoring system by allocating a predetermined initial influence score to each domain in a preselected subset of domains in the set of domains such that each domain in the preselected subset begins a process for deriving an updated influence score by having the predetermined initial influence score, which is greater than zero, while all other domains begin the process by having a zero initial influence score; and updating the influence scores for all domains in the set by counting the links to the pages in the corpus. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The medium of claim 11, wherein the pages are web pages and a domain in the set of domains is defined by a set of web addresses or Uniform Resource Identifiers owned or controlled by an entity. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The medium of claim 11, the method comprising: crawling the Internet to obtain information on the corpus of pages including links to pages between domains within the corpus and storing the information, wherein the updating the influence scores further comprises calculating an influence score for a domain in the set using a count of the links to the pages between the domain and other domains within the corpus. ### Claim 14 (depends on 11) The medium of claim 11, wherein each page is a discreet set of content at a specified URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and wherein the preselected subset of domains is preselected at least in part by human selection. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The medium of claim 11, wherein other domains not in the preselected subset of domains gain a non-zero influence score value only through links from domains that attain or have a non-zero influence score; and wherein the updating creates final influence scores which are saved and used to rank search results. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: generating a blacklist of domains, the blacklist used while updating the influence scores for all domains, and the blacklist includes a list of blacklisted domains. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The medium of claim 16, wherein during the updating, a link from a blacklisted domain to another domain does not add to an influence score value of the another domain. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The medium of claim 16, wherein during the updating, a link from a non-blacklisted domain to a blacklisted domain results in a negative score being added to the influence score value of the non-blacklisted domain. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, wherein authors within content posting domains are treated as domains separate from the host of the content posting domains. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The medium of claim 19, wherein the content posting domains include at least one of social media or social network web sites. ### Claim 21 A device for creating domain influence scores that can be used to rank search results, the device comprising: a non-transitory machine-readable medium to store instructions; one or more processors to execute the instructions; and a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory to store the instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: obtain a corpus of pages hosted by a set of domains, at least some of the pages including links to other pages; initialize a domain influence scoring system by allocating a predetermined initial influence score to each domain in a preselected subset of domains in the set of domains such that each domain in the preselected subset begins a process for deriving an updated influence score by having the predetermined initial influence score, which is greater than zero, while all other domains begin the process by having a zero initial influence score; and update the influence scores for all domains in the set by counting the links to pages in the corpus. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The device of claim 21, the instructions further cause the one or more processors to: crawl the Internet to obtain information on the corpus of pages including links to pages between domains within the corpus and storing the information, wherein the updating the influence scores further comprises calculating an influence score for a domain in the set using a count of the links to the pages between the domain and other domains within the corpus. ### Claim 23 (depends on 21) The device of claim 21, wherein each page is a discreet set of content at a specified URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and wherein the preselected subset of domains is preselected at least in part by human selection. ### Claim 24 (depends on 21) The device of claim 21, wherein other domains not in the preselected subset of domains gain a non-zero influence score value during the process only through links from pages in domains that attain or have a non-zero influence score; and wherein the updating creates final influence scores which are saved and used to rank search results. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The device of claim 24, wherein the method further comprises: generate a blacklist of domains, the blacklist used while updating the influence scores for all domains, and the blacklist includes a list of blacklisted domains. ### Claim 26 (depends on 24) The device of claim 24, wherein during the updating, a link from a blacklisted domain to another domain does not add to an influence score value of the another domain. ### Claim 27 (depends on 24) The device of claim 24, wherein during the updating, a link from a non-blacklisted domain to a blacklisted domain results in a negative score being added to the influence score value of the non-blacklisted domain.