Distance based search ranking demotion

A system, comprising:

• a data processing apparatus;
• and
• one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and that upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
• receiving data specifying a search query, and a location of a user device from which the search query was received;
• receiving data specifying a set of documents determined to be relevant to the search query, wherein a subset of the documents are local documents having local significance to a geographic location;
• determining that a first local document of the subset of the documents is eligible for a demotion operation that adjusts a search score of the first local document to demote a rank of the first local document, the determination based at least in part on the geographic location of the user device and the geographic location to which the first local document has local significance, and in response to the determination:
• determining that at least one document in the set of documents that is not a local document has a search score that meets a distant document demotion threshold;
• and
• in response adjusting the search score of the first local document to demote the first local document's ranking so that the rank of the first local document relative to the rank of the at least one document is decreased.

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

• receiving data specifying a search query, and a location of a user device from which the search query was received;
• receiving data specifying a set of documents determined to be relevant to the search query, wherein a subset of the documents are local documents having local significance to a geographic location;
• determining that a first local document of the subset of the documents is eligible for a demotion operation that adjusts a search score of the first local document to demote a rank of the first local document, the determination based at least in part on the geographic location of the user device and the geographic location to which the first local document has local significance, and in response to the determination:
• determining that at least one document in the set of documents that is not a local document has a search score that meets a distant document demotion threshold;
• and
• in response adjusting the search score of the first local document to demote the first local document's ranking so that the rank of the first local document relative to the rank of the at least one document is decreased.