Patent ID: 7693901

Claim:
One or more computer-readable media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by a search engine, cause the search engine to perform a computerized method to rank a plurality of items, the method comprising: accessing data associated with a plurality of individual search result items from a plurality of data sources, the plurality of data sources including at least one feed source and at least one crawl source, wherein the at least one feed source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that feeds data to the search engine, and wherein the at least one crawl source comprises a third-party source of information external to the search engine that is crawled by the search engine to access data; determining at least one popularity input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the at least one popularity input for a given individual search result item is indicative of a user popularity of that given individual search result item; determining at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the at least one data quality input for a given individual search result item is indicative of at least one of a completeness, accuracy, and reliability of data available for the given individual search result item; and calculating a global ranking score for each of the plurality of individual search result items based on the at least one popularity input and the at least one data quality input for each of the plurality of individual search result items, wherein the global ranking scores allow the plurality of individual search result items to be ranked against each other and commingled together in a common list as search results in response to a search query submitted to the search engine.