{
  "patent_number": "US 7836050",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Search Engines Rank Images Using User Ratings",
  "original_title": "Ranking content based on relevance and quality",
  "summary": "A system that improves image search results by combining how well an image matches a search term with how highly users have rated that image elsewhere.",
  "what_it_does": "This system improves search results by calculating a final score for images based on two distinct factors. First, it measures relevance by comparing search keywords to metadata associated with the image. Second, it calculates a quality score based on user ratings from various image forums, which is determined before any search query occurs. The system normalizes these ratings across different forums to ensure a five-star rating on one site is comparable to a ten-point scale on another. Finally, it combines these two scores to re-rank the search results, ensuring high-quality images appear higher than low-quality ones even if their relevance to the search term is identical.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover ranking systems that rely solely on keyword matching without incorporating external user ratings.",
    "Does not cover real-time ranking adjustments based on user clicks or behavioral data collected during the search session.",
    "Does not cover ranking methods that fail to normalize ratings across different platforms.",
    "Does not cover systems that lack a pre-calculated quality score independent of the specific search query."
  ],
  "filed": "2006-01-25",
  "granted": "2010-11-16",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Microsoft Corp",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/microsoft-corp",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Wei-Ying Ma",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/wei-ying-ma"
    },
    {
      "name": "Feng Jing",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/feng-jing"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lei Zhang",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/lei-zhang"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 46,
  "tags": [
    "software",
    "ai_ml",
    "ecommerce"
  ],
  "abstract": "A method and system for ranking content and providing a user interface for viewing the content is provided. The content system ranks content in a search result based on a combination of relevance of the content to a query and quality of the content. The content system may derive the quality of content by analyzing ratings provided by various content forums. The content system may use metadata provided by a content forum when searching for content that matches a query. The content system generates a rank score that combines the relevance and quality of the content and ranks the content according to the rank scores.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7836050/bing-search-ranking",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7836050/bing-search-ranking/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US7836050",
  "relatedPatents": []
}