US 9,807,181 B2Granted

Determination of general and topical news and geographical scope of news content

AssigneeYahoo Holdings, Inc.

InventorMike Wexler

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Abstract

Methods for categorizing news are presented. One method groups articles into clusters that share a common topic. A first category is identified for each article that indicates if the article is news or not. Further, the method includes an operation for determining use data for each article that has information about people that have accessed or referenced the article. Additionally, the method includes an operation for combining the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine the geographical scope of interest for the cluster. The use data and the first category are combined for all the articles in each cluster to determine a second category for each article that indicates if the article is general news, topical news, or not news. The articles are presented to the user based on the geographical scope of interest, the second category, and the attributes of the user.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for categorizing news articles, the method comprising:

grouping articles into clusters, each cluster being associated with a topic that is common to articles in the cluster;
identifying a plurality of signals indicative of whether an article is considered news or not-news;
assigning a first category for each article that defines the article as news or not-news, wherein assigning the first category includes,
obtaining a score for each article based on the plurality of signals identified from each article, and
determining the first category as news when the score is above or equal to a predetermined threshold or not-news when the score is below the predetermined threshold;
obtaining use data for each article, the use data including social information gathered from one or more social networks of users that have accessed or referenced each article, wherein the social information includes geographical data associated with the users that have accessed or referenced each article within the one or more social networks, and wherein the use data further includes mapped locations of users that have accessed each article;
combining the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a geographical scope of interest for the cluster, wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster includes a geographic region in which one or more users are interested in one or more of the articles in the cluster, and wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster is further based on the mapped locations of users that have accessed the articles in the cluster;
combining the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a second category for each article, the second category indicating if the article is general news, topical news, or not-news;
and
presenting the articles to a user based on the geographical scope of interest, the second category, and attributes of the user, wherein operations of the method are executed by a processor.

7 more elements

A computer program embedded in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, when executed by one or more processors, for categorizing news articles, the computer program comprising:

program instructions for grouping articles into clusters, each cluster being associated with a topic that is common to articles in the cluster;
program instructions for identifying a plurality of signals indicative of whether an article is considered news or not-news;
program instructions for assigning a first category for each article that defines the article as news or not-news, wherein assigning the first category includes,
obtaining a score for each article based on the plurality of signals identified from each article, and
determining the first category as news when the score is above or equal to a predetermined threshold or not-news when the score is below the predetermined threshold;
program instructions for obtaining use data for each article, the use data including social information gathered from one or more social networks of users that have accessed or referenced each article, wherein the social information includes geographical data associated with the users that have accessed or referenced each article within the one or more social networks, and wherein the use data further includes mapped locations of users that have accessed each article;
program instructions for combining the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a geographical scope of interest for the cluster, wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster includes a geographic region in which one or more users are interested in one or more of the articles in the cluster, and wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster is further based on the mapped locations of users that have accessed the articles in the cluster;
program instructions for combining the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a second category for each article, the second category indicating if the article is general news, topical news, or not-news;
and
program instructions for presenting the articles to a user based on the geographical scope of interest, the second category, and attributes of the user.

7 more elements

A system for categorizing news articles, the system comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory having a computer program, wherein program instructions from the computer program when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
group articles into clusters, each cluster being associated with a topic that is common to articles in the cluster;
identify a plurality of signals indicative of whether an article is considered news or not-news;
assign a first category for each article, the first category defining the article as news or not-news, wherein assigning the first category includes,
obtaining a score for each article based on the plurality of signals identified from each article, and
determining the first category as news when the score is above or equal to a predetermined threshold or not-news when the score is below the predetermined threshold;
obtain use data for each article, the use data including social information gathered from one or more social networks of users that have accessed or referenced each article, wherein the social information includes geographical data associated with the users that have accessed or referenced each article within the one or more social networks, and wherein the use data further includes mapped locations of users that have accessed each article;
combine the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a geographical scope of interest for the cluster, wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster includes a geographic region in which one or more users are interested in one or more of the articles in the cluster, and wherein the geographical scope of interest for the cluster is further based on the mapped locations of users that have accessed the articles in the cluster;
combine the use data and the first category for all the articles in each cluster to determine a second category for each article, the second category indicating if the article is general news, topical news, or not-news;
and
present the articles to a user based on the geographical scope of interest, the second category, and attributes of the user.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/944,409Filed 17 Jul 2013
Published: US 2015/0026255 A122 Jan 2015
Granted: 31 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04L 67/535
Network services: tracking the activity of the user
G06F 16/9537
Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines: spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
H04L 51/222
Monitoring or handling of messages: using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot…
H04W 4/185
Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless…:…