Authoritative document identification

Abstract

A system determines documents that are associated with a location, identifies a group of signals associated with each of the documents, and determines authoritativeness of the documents for the location based on the signals.

1 . A method comprising: 
 identifying a set of documents, as candidate documents, that are associated with a location;    determining signals associated with the candidate documents;    determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents for the location based on the signals; and    processing the candidate documents based on their authoritativeness for the location.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying a set of documents includes: 
 analyzing documents in a document corpus to identify snippets of text that include information associated with the location, and    identifying documents that include the snippets of text as candidate documents.    
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the information associated with the location includes at least one of a full or partial address of the location, a full or partial telephone number associated with the location, or a full or partial name of a business associated with the location.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein identifying a set of documents further includes: 
 determining documents that are linked to by the candidate documents, and    identifying the determined documents as candidate documents.    
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein identifying a set of documents further includes: 
 determining additional documents by stripping portions of addresses of the candidate documents, and    identifying the additional documents as candidate documents.    
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining signals associated with the candidate documents includes: 
 determining a number of outlinks from ones of the candidate documents that point to other ones of the candidate documents; and    wherein determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents includes:    generating an authoritative score for one of the candidate documents based on the number of outlinks from other ones of the candidate documents that point to the candidate document.    
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining signals associated with the candidate documents includes: 
 identifying anchor text associated with links to the candidate documents; and    wherein determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents includes:    generating an authoritative score for one of the candidate documents based on whether the candidate document is pointed to byone or more links whose anchor text matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining signals associated with the candidate documents includes: 
 identifying titles of ones of the candidate documents; and    wherein determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents includes:    generating an authoritative score for one of the candidate documents based on whether a title associated with the candidate document matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining signals associated with the candidate documents includes: 
 identifying domain names associated with ones of the candidate documents; and    wherein determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents includes:    generating an authoritative score for one of the candidate documents based on whether a domain name associated with the candidate document matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining signals associated with the candidate documents includes: 
 determining locations with which ones of the candidate documents are associated; and    wherein determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents further includes:    increasing the authoritativeness of one of the candidate documents based one whether the candidate document is associated with a single location.    
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the signals are associated with at least one of: 
 a number of outlinks from ones of the candidate documents that point to another one of the candidate documents,    anchor text associated with links that point to ones of the candidate documents that matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location,    titles of ones of the candidate documents that match all or part of the business name, and    domain names associated with ones of the candidate documents that match all or part of the business name.    
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the signals are associated with a plurality of different types of data associated with the candidate documents; and 
 wherein the method further comprises:    weighting the different types of data;    combining the weighted data for ones of the candidate documents; and    assigning authoritative scores to the ones of the candidate documents based on the combined, weighted data.    
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein processing the candidate documents includes: 
 ranking one of the candidate documents based on its authoritative score.    
   
   
       14 . A system comprising: 
 means for identifying a set of documents, as candidate documents, that are associated with a business;    means for determining a plurality of signals associated with each of the candidate documents; and    means for determining authoritativeness of the candidate documents for the business based on the signals.    
   
   
       15 . A system, comprising: 
 a memory to store instructions; and    a processor to execute the instructions in the memory to: 
 determine documents that are associated with a location,  
 identify a plurality of signals associated with each of the documents,  
 assign authoritative scores to the documents based on the signals, and  
 process the documents based on the authoritative scores.  
   
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when determining documents, the processor is configured to analyze documents in a document corpus to detect documents that include snippets of text with information associated with the location.  
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the information associated with the location includes at least one of a full or partial address of the location, a full or partial telephone number associated with the location, or a full or partial name of a business associated with the location.  
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein when determining documents, the processor is further configured to identify documents that are linked to by the documents.  
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein when determining documents, the processor is further configured to identify additional documents by stripping portions of addresses of the documents.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when identifying a plurality of signals, the processor is configured to determine a number of outlinks from ones of the documents that point to another one of the documents; and 
 when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to generate an authoritative score for one of the documents based on a number of outlinks from other documents that point to the document.    
   
   
       21 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when identifying a plurality of signals, the processor is configured to identify anchor text associated with links to ones of the documents; and 
 when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to generate an authoritative score for one of the documents based on one or more links to the document whose anchor text matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       22 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when identifying a plurality of signals, the processor is configured to identify titles of ones of the documents; and 
 when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to generate an authoritative score for one of the documents based on whether the document includes a title that matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       23 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when identifying a plurality of signals, the processor is configured to identify domain names associated with ones of the documents; and 
 when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to generate an authoritative score for one of the documents based on whether the document is associated with a domain name that matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location.    
   
   
       24 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when identifying a plurality of signals, the processor is configured to determine locations with which ones of the documents are associated; and 
 when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to increase the authoritative score assigned to one of the documents when the document is associated with a single location.    
   
   
       25 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the signals are associated with at least one of: 
 a number of outlinks from ones of the documents that point to another one of the documents,    anchor text associated with links to ones of the documents that matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location,    titles of ones of the documents that match all or part of the business name, and    domain names associated with ones of the documents that match all or part of the business name.    
   
   
       26 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the signals are associated with a plurality of different types of data associated with the documents; and 
 wherein when assigning authoritative scores to the documents, the processor is configured to:    weight the different types of data,    combine the weighted data for ones of the documents, and    generate authoritative scores for the ones of the documents based on the combined, weighted data.    
   
   
       27 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein when processing the documents, the processor is configured to rank one of the documents based on its authoritative score.  
   
   
       28 . A computer-readable medium that stores computer-executable instructions, comprising: 
 instructions for identifying documents that are associated with a location;    instructions for determining a plurality of signals associated with the documents; and    instructions for determining authoritativeness of the documents for the location based on the signals.    
   
   
       29 . A method comprising: 
 identifying a set of documents, as candidate documents, that are associated with a location;    determining, for each of the candidate documents, a first signal based on a number of outlinks from one or more of the candidate documents that point to the candidate document;    determining, for each of the candidate documents, a second signal based on whether there is anchor text, which matches all or part of a name of a business associated with the location, associated with a link that points to the candidate document;    determining, for each of the candidate documents, a third signal based on whether a title of the candidate document matches all or part of the business name;    determining, for each of the candidate documents, a fourth signal based on whether a domain name associated with the candidate document matches all or part of the business name;    determining, for each of the candidate documents, a fifth signal based on whether the candidate document is associated with a single location;    weighting the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth signals;    combining the weighted first, second, third, fourth, and fifth signals to identify a score for each of the candidate documents; and    processing the candidate documents based on the scores.