Google ha registrato due nuovi brevetti che meritano una attenzione particolare perchè vanno entrambi nella stessa direzione: affinare la restituzione dei risultati durante la ricerca. Se uno limita i risultati in base a filtri imposti a monte, l'altro affina il ranking in base alle scelte compiute a valle.
Brevetto 7.031.954
An electonic document retrieval system and method for a collection of information distributed over a network having documents stored in web or document servers in which an access control list relates user identification to documents to which a user has access. No access control lists are contained in the documents themselves nor are comparisons made between lists of users, with their access levels, and the classifications of documents. Rather, by the use of URLs or pointers, it is possible to associate every document to which a user has access with the user identification number or code. [...]When a search query is applied to a query server, a list of hits is returned, together with pertinent URLs. The query server consults each access control list associated with each document server, to present to the user only those URLs for which he has a proper access level. Other URLs for which the user does not have proper access are kept hidden from the user.
Riassunto: i documenti messi online avranno diversi livelli di accesso, dunque l'appartenenza o meno ad un preciso livello o gruppo potrebbe inibire o meno la possibilità di ottenere tale risultato durante la ricerca.
Brevetto 7.031.961
A search and recommendation system employs the preferences and profiles of individual users and groups within a community of users, as well as information derived from categorically organized content pointers, to augment Internet searches, re-rank search results, and provide recommendations for objects based on an initial subject-matter query. The search and recommendation system operates in the context of a content pointer manager, which stores individual users' content pointers (some of which may be published or shared for group use) on a centralized content pointer database connected to the Internet. The shared content pointer manager is implemented as a distributed program, portions of which operate on users' terminals and other portions of which operate on the centralized content pointer database.
Riassunto: se partecipo a gruppi di discussione sulla pesca, tengo un blog sulla pesca e discuto online con amici pescatori, se cerco la parola "pesca" difficilmente Google mi restituirà risultati relativi al frutto.
O almeno questo è quanto si può intuire dagli abstract dei brevetti. Andando a fondo nella descrizione fornita all'Ufficio Brevetti USA probabilmente se ne potrebbe carpire qualcosa di più.
