Patent ID: 8874558

Claim:
A method performed by one or more computer devices, the method comprising: identifying, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a particular channel of a plurality of channels that provide content, the particular channel including a plurality of content items; determining, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a respective first score for each of the plurality of content items, the first score, for one of the plurality of content items, reflecting a measure of quality of the one of the plurality of content items; determining, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a topic distribution for each of the plurality of content items, the topic distribution, for the one of the plurality of content items, indicating a topic conveyed by the one of the plurality of content items; assigning, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a second score to the particular channel, the second score reflecting a measure of quality of the particular channel; calculating, by at least one of the one or more computer devices and for each of the plurality of content items, a third score, the third score, for the one of the plurality of content items, being calculated relative to the topic conveyed by the one of the plurality of content items and based on the first score determined for the one of the plurality of content items and a value of the topic distribution determined for the one of the plurality of content items; calculating, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a fourth score for the particular channel based on the third score calculated for each of the plurality of content items; normalizing, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, the fourth score to obtain a normalized score, the fourth score being normalized based on a total quantity of the plurality of content items included in the particular channel; calculating, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a fifth score based on the normalized score and the second score; determining, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a particular topic for which the particular channel is authoritative based on the fifth score; determining, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, that a difference between a time at which a new content item, relating to the particular topic, has been added to the particular channel and a current time is less than a threshold amount of time; and assigning, by at least one of the one or more computer devices, a sixth score to the new content item based on the fifth score, the particular channel being authoritative for the particular topic, and the difference being less than the threshold amount of time, the new content item being promoted in search results for a search query relating to the particular topic based on the sixth score.