Patent ID: 8176043

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for ranking content items, the method comprising: receiving a list of a plurality of content items; categorizing a first content item in a first group of a hierarchical set of groups, wherein the hierarchical set of groups is arranged in accordance with a level of relevance to a user; sorting the first group including the first content item and a second content item based on a determined entity rank for each content item independently of sorting a second group of the hierarchical set of groups, wherein the second group includes a third content item of the plurality of content items and wherein entity rank indicates content item popularity relative to other content items of a same type and wherein determining entity rank for content items of a first content type is performed based on a first set of content item attributes and determining entity rank for content items of a second content type is performed based on a second set of content item attributes different from the first set of content item attributes; and generating a ranked list of content items by combining the first group with the second group, wherein the second group is ranked lower than the first group and wherein content items belonging to the first group are ranked higher than content items belonging to the second group in the ranked list.