Web Page Ranking Method, Apparatus and Program Product
Web pages accessed as results obtained from search engines which locate documents or web pages or web sites in a computer network (e.g., a distributed system of computer systems), are displayed in a ranked order. The ranked order improves the relevance of displayed web pages to a search inquiry entered by a user of an end user device such as a personal computer system, a tablet, a smartphone or other device. The method, apparatus and program product identifies reference pages based on source code analysis; how many times any page is referred in different pages; and what amount of content is referred in any document. The reputation of any referred page is assessed. This information is used to calculate a score of any web page, with a better score resulting in higher ranking.
1 . Method comprising:
responding to entry of a search query by a computer user into a search program executing on a computer system having a processor and memory by accessing a plurality of web pages;
operating on the data of each of the plurality of accessed web pages to:
determine other web pages to which reference is made from an accessed web page;
determine the relevance of the referenced other web pages to the content of the accessed web page;
order the accessed web pages into a ranked order based upon the number and relevance of the referenced other web pages to an accessed web page, with higher rank being given to accessed web pages to which the referenced other web pages have greater relevance; and
displaying the plurality of accessed web pages to the computer user in ranked order, with higher ranked web pages being given priority in display.
2 . Method according to claim 1 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other web page contains advertising and, if so, then filtering the advertising containing web page out of further determination.
3 . Method according to claim 1 wherein the operation on the data of accessed web pages comprises a determination of the reputation of an accessed web page by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page.
4 . Method according to claim 1 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other page is referenced in a plurality of accessed web pages and, if so, assigning a ranking scoring value reflective of the number of references.
5 . Method according to claim 1 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining the extent to which the content of a referenced web page is the similar to the content of the accessed web page and assigning a ranking scoring value reflective of the degree of similarity.
6 . Method according to claim 1 wherein the ordering of accessed web pages into ranked order comprises calculating a ranking score for each accessed web page from assigned ranking scoring values, where the values are represented by:
R for the reputation of the accessed web page determined by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page;
N for the number of times a referenced web page is referenced; and
D for the extent to which the content of a referenced web page is the similar to the content of the accessed web page;
each value being in a predetermined range of values.
7 . Method according to claim 6 wherein the calculation is an iteration of summing R X N X D for each accessed web page.
8 . Apparatus comprising:
an information handling system having a processor and associated memory, said system being accessible to a user of an end user device which has a processor and associated memory;
program instructions stored in memory accessible to said information handling system and effective when executing on said information handling system to:
respond to entry of a search query by a computer user into a search program executing on the end user device by accessing a plurality of web pages;
operate on the data of each of the plurality of accessed web pages to:
determine other web pages to which reference is made from an accessed web page;
determine the relevance of the referenced other web pages to the content of the accessed web page;
order the accessed web pages into a ranked order based upon the relevance of the referenced other web pages to an accessed web page, with higher rank being given to accessed web pages to which the referenced other web pages have greater relevance; and
display the plurality of accessed web pages to the computer user in ranked order, with higher ranked web pages being given priority in display.
9 . Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other web page contains advertising and, if so, then filtering the advertising containing web page out of further determination.
10 . Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the operation on the data of accessed web pages comprises a determination of the reputation of an accessed web page by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page.
11 . Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other page is referenced in a plurality of accessed web pages and, if so, assigning a ranking scoring value reflective of the number of references,
12 . Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining the extent to which the content of a referenced web page is the similar to the content of the accessed web page and assigning a ranking scoring value reflective of the degree of similarity.
13 . Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the ordering of accessed web pages into ranked order comprises calculating a ranking score for each accessed web page from assigned ranking scoring values, where the values are represented by:
R for the reputation of the accessed web page determined by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page;
N for the number of times a referenced web page is referenced; and
D for the extent to which the content of a referenced web page is the similar to the content of the accessed web page;
each value being in a predetermined range of values.
14 . Apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the calculation is an iteration of summing R X N X D for each accessed web page.
15 . Program product for displaying ranked web pages in response to a search query, the computer program product comprising:
a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code configured to:
respond to entry of a search query by a computer user into a search program executing on an end user device by accessing a plurality of web pages;
operate on the data of each of the plurality of accessed web pages to:
determine other web pages to which reference is made from an accessed web page;
determine the relevance of the referenced other web pages to the content of the accessed web page;
order the accessed web pages into a ranked order based upon the relevance of the referenced other web pages to an accessed web page, with higher rank being given to accessed web pages to which the referenced other web pages have greater relevance; and
display the plurality of accessed web pages to the computer user in ranked order, with higher ranked web pages being given priority in display.
16 . Program product according to claim 15 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other web page contains advertising and, if so, then filtering the advertising containing web page out of further determination.
17 . Program product according to claim 15 wherein the operation on the data of accessed web pages comprises a determination of the reputation of an accessed web page by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page.
18 . Program product according to claim 15 wherein the determination of relevance comprises determining whether a referenced other page is referenced in a plurality of accessed web pages and, if so, assigning a ranking scoring value reflective of the number of references.
19 . Program product according to claim 15 wherein the ordering of accessed web pages into ranked order comprises calculating a ranking score for each accessed web page from assigned ranking scoring values, where the values are represented by:
R for the reputation of the accessed web page determined by identifying the number of other web pages referenced in the accessed web page;
N for the number of times a referenced web page is referenced; and
D for the extent to which the content of a referenced web page is the similar to the content of the accessed web page;
each value being in a predetermined range of values.
20 . Program product according to claim 19 wherein the calculation is an iteration of summing R X N X D for each accessed web page.