Systems and methods for authoritativeness grading, estimation and sorting of documents in large heterogeneous document collections

A method for determining the authoritativeness of a document having a plurality of document content features, the method comprising:

• selecting a predetermined number of top-ordered documents identified following a topic search of a large document collection;
• evaluating a link structure of each top-ordered document;
• determining one or more of a textual authoritativeness value or a textual authority class of each top-ordered document;
• and
• determining a weighted social authority rank for each top-ordered document based on the one or more of a textual authoritativeness value or a textual authority class of each top-ordered document.

A method for expanding a search query based on a textual authoritativeness of a document, the method comprising:

• identifying a first set of relevant documents using an initial set of query terms;
• determining a textual authoritativeness value for each document of the first set of relevant documents;
• identifying a second set of relevant documents from the first set of relevant documents based on the textual authoritativeness values determined for at least some of the first set of documents;
• defining a candidate set of query expansion terms from the second set of relevant documents;
• and
• selecting at least one query expansion term from the candidate set of query expansion terms.

A method of combining at least two sets of rank orderings to produce an aggregate set ordering that is closest in some distance to each of the least two sets of rank orderings, the method comprising:

• determining a first set rank ordering of relevant documents;
• determining a textual authoritativeness for each document in the first set rank ordering of relevant documents;
• determining a second set rank ordering of relevant documents from the first set rank ordering based on the textual authoritativeness determined for at least some of the first set of documents;
• and
• combining the first set rank ordering of relevant documents and the second set rank ordering of relevant documents using a rank aggregation algorithm model or method.

A method for simultaneously estimating an aggregate rank and aggregate weights to be assigned to two or more ranked document lists or document rank orderings, the method comprising determining a first set rank ordering of relevant documents;

• determining a textual authoritativeness value for each document in the first set rank ordering of relevant documents;
• determining a second set rank ordering of relevant documents from the first set rank ordering based on the textual authoritativeness values determined for at least some of the first set of documents;
• and
• combining the first set rank ordering of relevant documents and the second set rank ordering of relevant documents using a rank aggregation algorithm model or method.