Clustered News Results at Google

Limitations of News Results

A searcher may search for news about a particular topic, story, or category, using a query with search terms. The search terms get used to providing results to the user in response to the query. But, the provided results may not always provide the user with the exact news item or story that the user is looking for. In such cases, users have to refine or extend their query and try to find their answer by trial-and-error.

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Clustered News Results To Provide Additional Supplemental News

The Twitter Account for Google News announced a new look for search-related news results and Clustered News Results around the query term being searched for, and it provides and an example. I came across a patent which details this change Granted on December 7, 2021:

Now, when there are multiple stories related to your search, we’ll organize results by story so it’s easier to understand what’s most relevant and you can make a more informed decision on which specific articles to explore. Here’s what that looks like: https://t.co/PQ2DHiZKH4

— Google News (@googlenews) December 7, 2021

Here is the patent that was just granted this week which described how news and supplemental information may show in clustered news results around the topic of the query. So if I wanted to learn what was going on locally, I could search for “Carlsbad News” to learn what was happening at the nearby beach

The disclosed subject matter relates to a machine-implemented method, comprising receiving a query and identifying search results in response to the query. The method comprises:

• Grouping the search results into clusters
• Identifying similarities across the clusters
• Determining a related topic associated with the query based on the similarities of the clusters
• Finding a category associated with the query
• Locating supplemental information based on the related topic and the category
• Providing the search results and the supplemental information for display in response to the query in clustered news results

Other aspects can get embodied in corresponding systems and apparatus, including computer program products.

Additional features of Clustered News Results

The related topic gets determined by:

• Ranking the similarities of clusters
• Selecting similarities of the related topic based on the ranking
• Grouping the search results means identifying search results relating to the same event
• Determining the category further means determining the category based on the respective contents of each of the search results

In one example, identifying supplemental information further comprises identifying a link to a content item associated with the related topic. In one example, identifying supplemental information further comprises identifying a link to a content item associated with the category. In one example, the method further comprises modifying the search results based on using the related topic or the category as additional search criteria for the query.

Adding content items associated with the related topic or the category to the search results

The query may comprise a vertical query for content items of a specific content item type.

The query comprises a query for news items.

The supplemental information could include links to the topics or the categories.

Following a link to a topic can cause content items relating to the topic to get presented to the searcher.

Clustered News Results

This patent also includes processors and a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

• Receiving a query and identifying search results in response to the query
• Grouping the search results into clusters
• Identifying similarities across the clusters
• Determining a related topic associated with the query based on the similarities of the clusters

The operations comprise determining a category associated with the query, identifying supplemental information based on the related topic and the category, and providing the search results and the supplemental information for display in response to the query. Other aspects can get embodied in corresponding systems and apparatus, including computer program products.

These and other aspects can include the following features:

• Finding the related topic can mean determining the related topic based on a topic pre-associated with a search term of the query
• Learning the category means determining the category based on a category pre-associated with a search term of the query
• Knowing the related topic means ranking the similarities of the clusters, and selecting similarities as the related topic based on the ranking
• Grouping search results means identifying search results relating to the same event.
• locating supplemental information means identifying a link to a content item associated with the related topic and identifying a link to a content item associated with the category
• Modifying the search results based on using the related topic or the category as more search criteria appear for the query.

This patent also tells us about how a search engine like Google may perform operations comprising:

• Receiving a query and identifying search results in response to the query
• Grouping the search results into clusters and identifying similarities across the clusters
• Ranking the similarities of the clusters
• Determining, from the similarities, a related topic associated with the query based on the ranking
• Determining a category associated with the query
• Identifying supplemental information based on the related topic and the category
• Providing the search results and the supplemental information for display in response to the query

Advantages Of the Clustered News Results Patent

Providing a searcher with supplemental information in response to a search query that provides the searcher with more key terms or topics to help the searcher narrow the query and to expand the query to other topics that the searcher may find of interest in view of the results of the query.

This Clustered News Results Patent is at:

Providing supplemental information in news search
Inventors: Anand Paka, Paul Brian Moody, Mayuresh Saoji, Vikas Sukla, Andre Rohe, Richard Louis Gingras, and Maricia Scott
Assignee: Google LLC
US Patent: 11,194,868
Granted: December 7, 2021
Filed: September 28, 2018

Abstract

In one aspect, a method includes receiving a query, identifying search results in response to the query, grouping the search results into one or more clusters, identifying similarities across the clusters, determining a related topic associated with the query based on the similarities of the one or more clusters, determining a category associated with the query, identifying supplemental information based on the related topic and the category, and providing the search results and the supplemental information for display in response to the query.

About Bill Slawski

With more than 26 years of SEO experience and a Juris Doctor Degree, Bill Slawski is the foremost expert on Google’s patents as related to SEO. Patent Exploration is one of the quickest and most detailed ways to find new information about SEO. Bill is the Editor of SEO by the Sea, a prominent search engine optimization blog, where he is the author of over 1,300 posts. Bill’s experience includes Fortune 500 brands and some of the largest websites in the world. Bill is a contributing author for Moz, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. In 2014-2021, he spoke at industry-leading international conferences about topics including search engine algorithms, universal and blended search, personalization in search, search and social, and duplicate content problems, structured data, and schema