Quality Ranking

Google adding site quality details to the ranking algo?

[warrisr]

Something I run across today. It is this last paragraph that caught my eye.

"The patent also reveals that the same system could be roped in to rank other search results, not simply news. So sales and services could in the future be listed on the basis of price and the reputation of the company involved."

[newscientist.com...]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I don't quite understand how this can be applied to other searches.

Now Google, whose name has become synonymous with internet searching, plans to build a database that will compare the track record and credibility of all news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of any search results accordingly.

When applied to search in general, isn't the above what they have been trying to do all along with the main index? Or perhaps they intend to choose other categories and apply similar comparisons, e.g. travel.

[cornwall]

Have a look at Search Engine Watch coments on this

Fox fails to mention that this patent application was filed with the USPTO about 18 months ago, on September 16, 2003 to be precise. This means that it's very likely that one/some/many/all or none of the concepts are already being utilized in the Google News algorithm.