There’s been lots of hypothesis of what Navboost is however to my data no one has pinpointed an satisfactory patent that might be the unique Navboost patent. This patent from 2004 carefully aligns with Navboost
So I took the few clues we have now about it and recognized a pair doubtless patents.
The clues I used to be working with are that Google Software program Engineer Amit Singhal was concerned with Navboost and had a hand in inventing it. One other clue is that Navboost dated to 2005. Lastly, the courtroom paperwork point out that Navboost was up to date afterward so there could also be different patents in there about that, which we’ll get to in some unspecified time in the future however not on this article.
So I deduced that if Amit Singhal was the inventor then there could be a patent together with his identify on it and certainly there may be, courting from 2004.
Out of all of the patents I noticed, the 2 most attention-grabbing have been these:
- Techniques and strategies for correlating doc topicality and recognition 2004
- Interleaving Search Outcomes 2007
This text will cope with the primary one, Techniques and strategies for correlating doc topicality and recognition courting from 2004, which aligns with the identified timeline of Navboost courting to 2005.
Patent Does Not Point out Clicks
An attention-grabbing high quality of this patent is that it doesn’t point out clicks and I think that individuals in search of the Navboost patent could have ignored it as a result of it doesn’t point out clicks.
However the patent discusses ideas associated to person interactions and navigational patterns that are references to clicks.
Cases The place Person Clicks Are Implied In The Patent
Doc Choice and Retrieval:
The patent describes a course of the place a person selects paperwork (which could be inferred as clicking on them) from search outcomes. These choices are used to find out the paperwork’ reputation.
Mapping Paperwork to Subjects:
After paperwork are chosen by customers (by way of clicks), they’re mapped to a number of matters. This mapping is a key a part of the method, because it associates paperwork with particular areas of curiosity or topics.
Person Navigational Patterns:
The patent often refers to person navigational patterns, which embrace how customers work together with paperwork, such because the paperwork they select to click on on. These patterns are used to compute reputation scores for the paperwork.
It’s clear that person clicks are a basic a part of how the patent proposes to evaluate the recognition of paperwork.
By analyzing which paperwork customers select to work together with, the system can assign reputation scores to those paperwork. These scores, together with the topical relevance of the paperwork, are then used to reinforce the accuracy and relevance of search engine outcomes.
Patent: Person Interactions Are A Measure Of Reputation
The patent US8595225 makes implicit references to “person clicks” within the context of figuring out the recognition of paperwork. Heck, reputation is so necessary to the patent that it’s within the identify of the patent: Techniques and strategies for correlating doc topicality and recognition
Person clicks, on this context, refers back to the interactions of customers with varied paperwork, equivalent to net pages. These interactions are a crucial part in establishing the recognition scores for these paperwork.
The patent describes a technique the place the recognition of a doc is inferred from person navigational patterns, which might solely be clicks.
I’d wish to cease right here and point out that Matt Cutts has mentioned in a video that Reputation and PageRank are two various things. Reputation is about what customers are likely to favor and PageRank is about authority as evidenced by hyperlinks.
Matt outlined reputation:
“And so reputation in some sense is a measure of the place folks go whereas PageRank is way more a measure of fame.”
That definition from about 2014 suits what this patent is speaking about by way of reputation being about the place folks go.
See Matt Cutts Explains How Google Separates Reputation From True Authority
Watch the YouTube Video: How does Google separate reputation from authority?
How The Patent Makes use of Reputation Scores
The patent describes a number of ways in which it makes use of reputation scores.
Assigning Reputation Scores:
The patent discusses assigning reputation scores to paperwork based mostly on person interactions such because the frequency of visits or navigation patterns (Line 1).
Per-Matter Reputation:
It talks about deriving per-topic reputation info by correlating the recognition information related to every doc to particular matters (Line 5).
Reputation Scores in Rating:
The doc describes utilizing reputation scores to order paperwork amongst a number of matters related to every doc (Line 13).
Reputation in Doc Retrieval:
Within the context of doc retrieval, the patent outlines utilizing reputation scores for rating paperwork (Line 27).
Figuring out Reputation Primarily based on Person Navigation:
The method of figuring out the recognition rating for every doc, which can contain utilizing person navigational patterns, can be talked about (Line 37).
These situations exhibit the patent’s deal with incorporating the recognition of paperwork, as decided by person interplay (clicks), into the method of rating and correlating them to particular matters.
The method outlined within the patent suggests a extra dynamic and user-responsive methodology of figuring out the relevance and significance of paperwork in search engine outcomes.
Navboost Assigns Scores To Paperwork
I’m going to cease right here to additionally point out that this patent mentions assigning scores to paperwork, which is how Google govt Eric Lehman described within the trial how Navboost labored:
Talking in regards to the state of affairs the place there wasn’t lots of click on information, Lehman testified:
“And so I believe Navboost does form of the pure factor, which is, within the face of that form of uncertainty, you are taking gentler measures. So that you would possibly modify the rating of a doc however extra mildly than in case you had extra information.”
That’s one other connection to Navboost in that the trial description and the patent describe utilizing Person Interplay for scoring webpages.
The extra this patent is analyzed, the extra it appears like what the trial paperwork described as Navboost.
Learn the patent right here:
Techniques and strategies for correlating doc topicality and recognition
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Sabelskaya