Patent Publication Number: US-10331770-B1

Title: System and method for confirming authorship of documents

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This patent application is a continuation of, and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/608,758, filed Sep. 10, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,177,074, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/532,511, filed Sep. 8, 2011, and titled, “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONFIRMING AUTHORSHIP OF DOCUMENTS,” both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosed embodiments relate generally to confirming authorship of documents. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Content on websites often include authorship information. For example, an article may include a byline listing entities that authored the article. However, the authorship information may not be accurate or may not be valid. For example, an article may include authorship information asserting that a particular entity authored the article when in fact the article was not authored by the particular entity. Inaccuracies and/or invalidity of authorship information cause inaccuracies when obtaining search results and/or confusion to users when the search results are presented. Thus, it would be desirable to confirm authorship of content in website so that the entities that authored the content are properly identified. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The embodiments disclosed herein are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings. Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the drawings. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a network system, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating authorship attributes that are usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating authorship attributes that are usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an authorship identifier that is usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating a profile for an entity, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating a server system, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating a content server system, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG. 8  is a flowchart of a method for confirming authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS 
     The description that follows includes example systems, methods, techniques, instruction sequences, and computing machine program products that embody illustrative embodiments. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of the described embodiments. It will be evident, however, to those skilled in the art that some embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In general, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail. 
     It will also be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first contact could be termed a second contact, and, similarly, a second contact could be termed a first contact, which changing the meaning of the description, so long as all occurrences of the “first contact” are renamed consistently and all occurrences of the second contact are renamed consistently. The first contact and the second contact are both contacts, but they are not the same contact. 
     The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the claims. As used in the description of the embodiments and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. 
     As used herein, the term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “in response to detecting,” that a stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined (that a stated condition precedent is true)” or “if (a stated condition precedent is true)” or “when (a stated condition precedent is true)” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “upon detecting” or “in response to detecting” that the stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context. 
     The embodiments described herein provide techniques for confirming authorship of documents. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a network system  100 , according to some embodiments. The network system  100  includes a server system  102  coupled to content server systems  104 ,  106 , and  108  via network  120 . The network  120  can generally include any type of wired or wireless communication channel capable of coupling together computing nodes. This includes, but is not limited to, a local area network, a wide area network, or a combination of networks. In some embodiments, the network  120  includes the Internet. 
     Server system  102  (sometimes herein called server  102  for ease of reference, noting that some embodiments of server system  102  include multiple servers) is configured to confirm authorship of documents hosted on content server systems (sometimes herein called content servers for ease of reference)  104 ,  106 , and  108 , as described in more detail below with reference to  FIGS. 2-8 . In some embodiments, server  102  includes a search engine. 
     In some embodiments, content servers  104 ,  106 , and  108  include web servers that host documents  110 ,  112 , and  114  for websites that are accessible via network  120 . The websites include, but are not limited to, news websites, blogs, social networking websites, academic websites, and corporate websites. At least a subset of the documents  110 ,  112 , and  114  include content where each piece of content is authored by respective entities. An entity is defined to be a person, a group of people, or an organization. The content includes, but is not limited to, articles, blog entries, books, music, videos, literature, posts on online discussion forums, posts on social networking websites, and the like. 
     Note that although  FIG. 1  shows a single server (e.g., the server  102 ) and three content servers (e.g., the content servers  104 ,  106 , and  108 ), any number of servers and content servers may be present in network system  100 . For example, each of server  102 , content server  104 , content server  106 , and content server  108  may include a plurality of distributed servers. The plurality of distributed servers may provide load balancing and/or may provide low-latency points of access to other computer systems. The distributed servers may be located within a single location (e.g., a data center, a building, etc.) or may be geographically distributed across multiple locations (e.g., data centers at various geographical locations, etc.). 
     Also note that although the embodiments described herein refer to server  102 , content server  104 , content server  106 , and content server  108 , the embodiments may be applied to multiple servers and content servers. Furthermore, the functionality of any of server  102 , content server  104 , content server  106 , and content server  108  may be implemented within a single server (or a set of distributed servers). For example, server  102  and content server  104  may be located on the same server (or the same set of distributed servers). 
     In some embodiments, predefined authorship attributes included in links are used to confirm authorship of documents.  FIG. 2  is a block diagram  200  illustrating authorship attributes that are usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , a document  204  includes a link  206  and a document  214  includes a link  216 . Documents  204  and  214  may be any of the documents from the documents  110 ,  112 , and  114  hosted on the content servers  104 ,  106 , and  108 , respectively. 
     Document  204  is included in (i.e., stored at, or stored on, or accessible from) a website  202 . A website includes a collection of documents that are authored, owned, or maintained by one or more entities. Furthermore, a website may be located in a domain (e.g., www.example.com), a subdomain (e.g., me.example.com), a subdirectory within a domain or subdomain (e.g., www.example.com/me/), and a set of dynamically-generated web pages in a domain or subdomain (e.g., www.example.com/profile?user_id=1001). 
     In some embodiments, document  214  is included in website  202  (i.e., the same website that includes document  204 ). In some embodiments, document  214  is included in a website that is separate and distinct from website  202 . In some embodiments, document  214  is a profile page for the entity that document  214  asserts (e.g., via a byline or the like) is an author or contributor to document  214 . 
     In some embodiments, link  206  includes a target attribute  208  and an authorship attribute  210 . The target attribute  208  includes information identifying a target document to which link  206  refers, or information specifying a location at which a target document can be accessed. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the target document referred to by the target attribute  208  is document  214 . In some implementations, the target attribute  208  includes a universal resource locator (URL). In some implementations, the target attribute  208  includes a universal resource identifier (URI). The authorship attribute  210  asserts authorship of document  204  by an entity associated with the target document to which link  206  refers. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the authorship attribute  210  of link  206  asserts that the entity associated with document  214  is an author of document  204 . In some implementations, the authorship attribute  210  is rel=“me”. In some implementations, the authorship attribute  210  is rel=“author”. In some implementations, the authorship attribute  210  is represented by a URL parameter in the target URL (target attribute  208 ), such as a rel=“author” parameter in the URL (e.g., http://www.example.com/article.php?article_id=1001&amp;rel=“author”), instead of as a link parameter that is separate from the target attribute  208 . 
     In some embodiments, link  216  includes a target attribute  218  and an authorship attribute  220 . The target attribute  218  includes information identifying a target document to which link  216  refers, or information specifying a location at which a target document can be accessed. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the target document referred to by the target attribute  218  is the website  202 . For example, the target attribute  218  may refer to a root document of a domain (e.g., www.example.com), root document of a subdomain (e.g., me.example.com), a root of a subdirectory within a domain or subdomain (e.g., www.example.com/me/), and root of a set of dynamically-generated web pages in a domain or subdomain (e.g., www.example.com/profile?user_id=1001). In some implementations, the target attribute  218  includes a universal resource locator (URL). In some implementations, the target attribute  218  includes a universal resource identifier (URI). The authorship attribute  220  indicates that the entity associated with document  214  is an author of or contributor to content at the website  202  to which the target attribute  218  refers. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the authorship attribute  220  of link  216  indicates that the entity associated with document  214  is an author of or contributor to content at website  202 . In some implementations, the authorship attribute  220  is rel=“contributor-to”. In some circumstances, the authorship attribute  220  is rel=“me”, which may be used to indicate that the entire website  202  contains content by the entity associated with document  214 . 
     The following discussion provides is an example of how an entity may use the authorship attribute  210  and the authorship attribute  220  to confirm authorship of a document. Assume that document  214  is a profile page for the entity that authored document  204  and that the entity that authored document  204  desires to provide confirmation that the entity did in fact author document  204 . In order to do so, the entity that authored document  204  (1) includes link  216  in document (profile page)  214  and (2) includes link  206  in document  204 . Assuming that document  214  has the URL “http://www.example.com/profiles/johndoe”, link  206  is &lt;a href=“http://www.example.com/profiles/johndoe” rel=“author”&gt;View my profile &lt;/a&gt;, where rel=“author” is the authorship attribute  210 . Assuming that a root of the website that hosts document  204  has the URL “http://www.example2.com/articles/”, link  216  is &lt;a href=“http://www.example2.com/articles” rel=“contributor-to”&gt; Read my articles at example2.com &lt;/a&gt;, where rel=“contributor-to” is the authorship attribute  220 . The loop formed by link  206  and link  216  confirms that the document is authored by the entity associated with document  214 . 
     Note that although  FIG. 2  shows only one link for each of the documents, each of the documents may include multiple links in which at least one of the links includes the authorship attribute  210  and/or the authorship attribute  220 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a technique for confirming authorship of documents when the authorship attribute  210  and the authorship attribute  220  are included in links in documents that directly link to each other. However, the authorship of documents may be confirmed when the authorship attribute  210  and the authorship attribute  220  are included in links in documents that are not directly linked to each other.  FIG. 3  is a block diagram  300  illustrating authorship attributes that are usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments.  FIG. 3  is similar to  FIG. 2  except that in  FIG. 3 , the target attribute  208  of link  206  refers to a document  304 , which in turn includes a link  306  having a target  308  that refers to document  214 . Links  206 ,  306 , and  216  form a chain of links to documents. When confirming authorship of document  204 , server  102  traverses links in the chain of links until document  214  that includes the authorship attribute  220  (e.g., the rel=“contributor-to” attribute) is identified. In general, any number of links included in documents may exist between document  204  and document  214 . Links  206  and  306  (and any other link in the chain of links between links  206  and  216 ) include the authorship attribute  210 , which is the basis for establishing a chain of links. In other words, the chain of links is established by a series of links in which a predecessor document includes a predecessor link that has the authorship attribute  210  and the target of the predecessor link is a successor document that includes a successor link that has the authorship attribute  210 . In some embodiments, document  304  (and any document between documents  204  and  214 ) is included in the website  202 . In some embodiments, document  304  (and any document between documents  204  and  214 ) is included in a website that is separate and distinct from website  202 . 
     The confirmation techniques discussed with reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3  analyze attributes included in links to confirm authorship of documents. The confirmation techniques discussed below with reference to  FIGS. 4 and 5  use authorship identifiers to confirm authorship of documents. 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram  400  illustrating an authorship identifier that is usable to confirm authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. A document  402  includes an authorship identifier  404  asserting authorship of the document  404  by an entity. In some embodiments, the authorship identifier  404  is an email address of the entity that authored the document  402 . In some embodiments, the authorship identifier  404  is byline of the entity that authored the document  402 . The fact that the document  402  includes the authorship identifier  404  is not sufficient by itself to confirm that the document  402  is authored by the entity. Thus, in some embodiments, the server  102  uses information from a profile for the entity that is associated with the authorship identifier  404  to confirm that the entity authored the document  402 . The entity that is associated with the authorship identifier  404  is confirmed to be the author of the document  402  when the profile for the entity indicates that the entity has confirmed that the authorship identifier  404  is included in documents authored by the entity that are hosted on a website (e.g., website  202 ). 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram  500  illustrating profile  502  for an entity  504 , according to some embodiments. The profile  502  for entity  504  includes an authorship identifier  506  that is associated with at least one website and a confirmation status  508  for the authorship identifier  506  that indicates whether entity  504  has confirmed that the authorship identifier  506  is included in documents authored by entity  504  that are hosted on the website. When the authorship identifier  506  corresponds to an authorship identifier included in documents hosted on the at least one website, entity  504  is confirmed to be the author of the documents hosted on the at least one website. For example, when the authorship identifier  506  has been confirmed to be associated with a website that hosts the document  402 , entity  504  is confirmed to be the author of document  402 . 
     In some embodiments, when the authorship identifier  506  is an email address in a domain that hosts a website including documents authored by entity  504 , server  102  sends a confirmation email that includes a confirmation link (and/or a confirmation code) to the email address. When entity  504  clicks on the confirmation link (and/or enters the confirmation code on a predetermined webpage), entity  504  confirms that the email address is included in documents authored by entity  504  that are hosted on the website of the domain. When documents hosted on the website of the domain include the email address, entity  504  is confirmed to be author of the documents. 
     In some embodiments, after the email address has been confirmed, entity  504  provides a byline that is included in documents authored by entity  504  that are hosted on the website of the domain. In these embodiments, when documents hosted on the website of the domain include the byline, entity  504  is confirmed to be author of the documents. 
     In some embodiments, the profile  502  for entity  504  includes content  510  associated with entity  504 . For example, profile  502  may include information relating to articles (e.g., links to the articles, titles of the articles, summaries of the articles) that entity  504  has authored. In some embodiments, profile  502  is a profile on a social networking website. 
     In some embodiments, the authorship of a document is confirmed using both the authorship identifier and the authorship attributes included in links. 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating server system  102 , according to some embodiments. The server system  102  typically includes one or more processing units (CPU&#39;s, sometimes called processors)  602  for executing programs (e.g., programs stored in memory  610 ), one or more network or other communications interfaces  604 , memory  610 , and one or more communication buses  609  for interconnecting these components. The communication buses  609  may include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. Server system  102  optionally includes (but typically does not include) a user interface  605  comprising a display device  606  and input devices  608  (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touch screen, keypads, etc.). 
     Memory  610  includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and typically includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory  610  optionally includes one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s)  602 . 
     Memory  610 , or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory  610 , comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, memory  610  or the computer readable storage medium of memory  610  stores the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
         an operating system  612  that includes procedures for handling various basic system services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;   a communication module  614  that is used for connecting the server  102  to other computers via the one or more communication interfaces  604  (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on;   an optional user interface module  616  that receives commands from the user via the input devices  608  and generates user interface objects in the display device  606 ;   an authorship confirmation module  618  that confirms authorship of documents, as described herein;   an optional search index  620  that facilitates identifying search requests, the search index  620  including information relating to documents, authorship of the documents, and a corresponding confirmation status of the authorship of the documents (e.g., confirmed authorship, non-confirmed authorship); and   optional profiles  622  of entities that include authorship identifiers  624  (e.g., the authorship identifier  404 , the authorship identifier  506 ), confirmation statuses  626  of the authorship identifiers  624  (e.g., the confirmation status  508 ), and content associated with the entity  628  (e.g., the content  510  associated with the entity  504 ), as described herein.       

     In some embodiments, search index  620  is located on a server that is separate and distinct from server system  102 . In some embodiments, the profiles  622  are located on a server that is separate and distinct from server system  102 . 
     Each of the above identified modules, applications or programs corresponds to a set of instructions, executable by the one or more processors (e.g., CPUs  602 ) of content server  700 , for performing a function described above. The above identified modules, applications or programs (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory  610  stores additional modules and data structures not described above. 
     Although  FIG. 6  shows a “server,”  FIG. 6  is intended more as functional description of the various features which may be present in a set of servers than as a structural schematic of the embodiments described herein. In practice, and as recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, items shown separately could be combined and some items could be separated. For example, some items shown separately in  FIG. 6  could be implemented on single servers and single items could be implemented by one or more servers. The actual number of servers used to implement server system  102  and how features are allocated among them will vary from one implementation to another, and may depend in part on the amount of data traffic that the system must handle during peak usage periods as well as during average usage periods. 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating a content server  700 , according to some embodiments. The content server  700  can be any of the content servers  104 ,  106 , and  108  in  FIG. 1 . The content server  700  typically includes one or more processing units (CPU&#39;s, sometimes called processors)  702  for executing programs (e.g., programs stored in memory  710 ), one or more network or other communications interfaces  704 , memory  710 , and one or more communication buses  709  for interconnecting these components. The communication buses  709  may include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. The content server  700  optionally includes (but typically does not include) a user interface  705  comprising a display device  706  and input devices  708  (e.g., keyboard, mouse, touch screen, keypads, etc.). Memory  710  includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and typically includes non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory  710  optionally includes one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s)  702 . 
     Memory  710 , or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory  710 , comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, memory  710  or the computer readable storage medium of memory  710  stores the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
         an operating system  712  that includes procedures for handling various basic system services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;   a communication module  714  that is used for connecting the content server  700  to other computers via the one or more communication interfaces  704  (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on;   an optional user interface module  716  that receives commands from the user via the input devices  708  and generates user interface objects in the display device  706 ;   a web server module  718  that responds to requests for documents  720  received from other computer systems;   documents  720  that include content  722  authored by entities, optional authorship identifiers  724  (e.g., the authorship identifier  404 , the authorship identifier  506 ), links  724  that each include a target attribute  728  (e.g., the target attribute  208 , the target attribute  218 , the target  308 ), an optional authorship attribute  730  (e.g., the authorship attribute  210 , the authorship attribute  210 ), an optional confirmation status attribute  732  indicating whether the authorship of the document is confirmed or not, and an optional author profile attribute  734  that provides a link to a profile of the entity that authored the document, as described herein; and   optional profiles  736  of entities that include authorship identifiers  738  (e.g., the authorship identifier  404 , the authorship identifier  506 ), confirmation statuses  740  of the authorship identifiers  738  (e.g., the confirmation status  508 ), and content  742  associated with the entities (e.g., the content  510  associated with the entity  504 ), as described herein.       

     Content server  700  optionally further includes a security module  750  for ensuring that content that is stored at or by content server  700  and that includes an indicia of authorship (e.g., byline or email address), is received from or on behalf of the entity associated that the indicia of authorship. Security module  750  is configured to prevent, or substantially prevent, storage on content server  700  of content having false indicia of authorship. 
     Each of the above identified modules, applications or programs corresponds to a set of instructions, executable by the one or more processors (e.g., CPUs  702 ) of content server  700 , for performing a function described above. The above identified modules, applications or programs (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. In some embodiments, memory  710  stores additional modules and data structures not described above. 
     Although  FIG. 7  shows a “content server,”  FIG. 7  is intended more as functional description of the various features which may be present in a set of servers than as a structural schematic of the embodiments described herein. In practice, and as recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, items shown separately could be combined and some items could be separated. For example, some items shown separately in  FIG. 7  could be implemented on single servers and single items could be implemented by one or more servers. The actual number of servers used to implement a content server and how features are allocated among them will vary from one implementation to another, and may depend in part on the amount of data traffic that the system must handle during peak usage periods as well as during average usage periods. 
     Confirming Authorship of Documents 
       FIG. 8  is a flowchart of a method  800  for confirming authorship of documents, according to some embodiments. The authorship confirmation module  618  accesses ( 802 ) a first document (e.g., the document  402 ) hosted on a first website (e.g., the website  202 ) of a first domain, where the first document includes an authorship identifier (e.g., the authorship identifier  404 ) asserting authorship of the first document by an entity (e.g., the entity  504 ). 
     The authorship confirmation module  618  conditionally confirms authorship of the first document by the entity when a profile for the entity (e.g., the profile  502  for the entity  504 ) is associated with the authorship identifier and when the profile for the entity indicates that the entity has confirmed that the authorship identifier is included in documents authored by the entity that are hosted on the first website of the first domain. For example, if the profile  502  for the entity  504  is associated with the authorship identifier  404  (e.g., the authorship identifier  506  corresponds to the authorship identifier  404 ) and the confirmation status  508  indicates that the entity  504  has confirmed that the authorship identifier  506  is included in documents authored by the entity  504  that are hosted on the website  202 , the authorship confirmation module  618  confirms that the entity associated with the authorship identifier  404  (e.g., the entity  504 ) authored the document  402 . In some embodiments, the authorship identifier in the profile is publicly viewable. 
     In some embodiments, the authorship confirmation module  618  determines that the first document has a non-confirmed authorship when no profile for the entity associated with the authorship identifier can be found or when the profile for the entity does not indicate that the entity has confirmed that the authorship identifier is included in documents authored by the entity. 
     In some embodiments, the authorship identifier includes an email address for a purported author of or contributor to the first document, where the email address is an email address in the first domain. In these embodiments, prior to conditionally confirming the authorship of the first document, the authorship confirmation module  618  requests that the entity confirm that the email address associated with the profile for the entity is the email address that the entity includes in documents authored by the entity. For example, the authorship confirmation module  618  may send a confirmation email that includes a confirmation link (and/or a confirmation code) to the email address. When the entity clicks on the confirmation link (and/or enters the confirmation code on a predetermined webpage), the entity confirms that the email address is included in documents authored by the entity that are hosted on the first website of the first domain. In some implementations, these embodiments require that the email address is an email address in the domain in which the first document is hosted. For example, if the first document is hosted on www.example.com, the email address must be in the example.com domain (e.g., johndoe@example.com). In some implementations, these embodiments require that the email address is included in a document in an unambiguous way and the entity has confirmed the email address associated with the profile of the entity (as described above). In one example, the first document includes an email address johndoe@example.com within a predetermined distance from a byline for the first document and the profile for the entity is associated with the confirmed email address johndoe@example.com. Alternatively, the first document includes an email link targeting an email address johndoe@example.com that also includes an authorship attribute rel=“author” and the profile for entity is associated with the confirmed email address johndoe@example.com. 
     In some embodiments, the authorship identifier includes a byline for a purported author of or contributor to the first document as the byline appears in documents hosted at least one domain. In these embodiments, prior to conditionally confirming the authorship of the first document, the authorship confirmation module  618  requests that the entity confirm that the byline associated with the profile for the entity is the byline that the entity includes in documents authored by the entity. In one example, the authorship confirmation module  618  requests that the entity provide a byline that is included in documents that are hosted on the first website of the first domain and that are authored by the entity. In some implementations, the entity provides a byline by providing a name of the entity (e.g., “John Doe”). In these implementations, the confirmation module  618  identifies occurrences of the name (or close matches) within documents that indicate that the named entity is an author of the document. In some implementations, the authorship confirmation module  618  first requests that the entity confirm that an email address associated with the profile for the entity is the email address that the entity includes in documents in the first website of the first domain that are authored by the entity, as discussed above. The confirmation of the email address confirms that the entity is an author of or contributor to documents hosted on the first website of the first domain, and therefore, a byline provided by the entity can be trusted to be a byline that the entity includes in documents that are hosted on the first website of the first domain and that are authored by the entity. 
     In some embodiments, the authorship identifier includes an email link to an email address for a purported author of or contributor to the first document, where the email link includes a predefined authorship attribute (e.g., the authorship attribute  220 ). For example, the email link may be &lt;a href=“mailto:johndoe@example.com” rel=“author”&gt;Email me&lt;/a&gt;. In these embodiments, prior to conditionally confirming the authorship of the first document, the authorship confirmation module  618  requests that the entity confirm that the email address associated with the profile for the entity is the email address that the entity includes in documents authored by the entity, as discussed above. 
     After confirming the authorship of the document, several operations may be performed. In some embodiments, responsive to confirming authorship of the first document by the entity, the authorship confirmation module  618  adds the first document (e.g., document  402 ) to the profile for the entity (e.g., the profile  502  for the entity  504 ). 
     In some embodiments, responsive to confirming authorship of the first document by the entity, the authorship confirmation module  618  adds the first document (e.g., the document  402 ) to a social networking webpage for the entity. 
     In some embodiments, responsive to confirming authorship of the first document by the entity, the authorship confirmation module  618  adds information relating to the first document (e.g., document  402 ) to a webpage including information relating to documents that the entity authored. In some implementations, the webpage including information relating to documents that the entity authored is an author webpage on the first website, an author webpage on a social networking website, a blog for the author, or a search result web page. 
     In some embodiments, responsive to confirming authorship of the first document by the entity, the authorship confirmation module  618  associates the first document (e.g., the document  402 ) with the entity (e.g., the entity  504 ) in a search index (e.g., the search index  620 ). 
     In some embodiments, the methods illustrated in  FIG. 8  are governed by instructions that are stored in a computer readable storage medium and that are executed by at least one processor of at least one server. Each of the operations shown in  FIG. 8  corresponds to instructions stored in a non-transitory computer memory or computer readable storage medium. In various implementations, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes a magnetic or optical disk storage device, solid state storage devices such as Flash memory, or other non-volatile memory device or devices. The computer readable instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be in source code, assembly language code, object code, or other instruction format that is interpreted and/or executable by one or more processors. 
     Plural instances may be provided for components, operations or structures described herein as a single instance. Finally, boundaries between various components, operations, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary, and particular operations are illustrated in the context of specific illustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality are envisioned and may fall within the scope of the embodiment(s). In general, structures and functionality presented as separate components in the example configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single component may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the embodiment(s). 
     The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles and their practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the embodiments and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.