NEWS: Google Attempts to Patent News by Quality Ranking

Patent applications obtained by world news organization Reuters has shown that Google.Inc, who are the leaders in Web Search Engines, have applied for an international patent on "News by Ranking". With the growth in popularity by Weblogs which often hold inaccurate and false stories the search engine giant is trying to patent search by ranking to show top results by more reliable mainstream news agencies. A spokesman for google has declined to comment on whether the technology is already being used by google or will be used in the future by the company.

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The technology attempting to be patented will help the company weed out the unreliable results and leave the more reliable sources as the top results. Google has always been very tight lipped on the methods used by the company to determine search results.

Although it sounds good on the surface for google it means that once again the news released on the internet will only come from a small controlled group of sources and while there may be some inaccuracies in results using the current methods, it is literally once again restricting free press and the freedom flow of information to Internet users the world over.



[edit on 6-5-2005 by Mayet]

[edit on 6-5-2005 by Mayet]

[edit on 6-5-2005 by Mayet]

one more fence to put up to control public words.the internet will be so not helpful in the future as all these companies try to destroy it with greed.what is the point of paying for internet if they gonna keep making you pay for all the content on here.i dont see a point.waste of time and money.i liked it when it was free...........

I think a more internet wide ranking system is a good idea. Look at ebay, you get to see how many things the seller has sold, and what the reviews are. Look at ATS, there is the points system below, which also gives a rough estimate of a person's posting quality. (those with orange bars are supposed to be listened to on any matter no matter what btw ) Or even look at out 'Way Above Topsecret' medallions, same sort of thing. Don't have to listen to anyone just because they have a high ranking, but you might be more likley to be less dismissive if a news outlet has had a high rank for a long time.

Really, thats what things like the Pulitzer Prize and whatnot indicate too. I mean, sites like Rense will never get good ranks, because they have no journalistic integrity, they're a tabloid. Many talboids operate by simply accepting whatever is submited to them, with no real fact checking or review process, thats what rense is like.

Guys a little perspective here. Its only a technique to rank the "news stories". You will still be free to select the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 100th post and read it as easily as you do currently.

Whats in jeapordy here is our laxness in having to think, once more, about who is putting this information infront of us.

Not a real problem at all.