Yahoo gets patent for human editor enhancements to search results.

Yahoo was awarded U.S. patent 7,599,911 today for “Method and apparatus for search ranking using human input and automated ranking”. The patent was filed in 2002.

Essentially, this method calculates search rankings based on both automated search algorithms and human editor input. In the patent, Yahoo describes a way that previously-collected input from human editors can be mixed in, or “blended”, with what its search algorithms return, resulting in better search results.

Yahoo describes the benefits and drawbacks of human editors:

Ranking by human editors reviewing search results provides more relevant ranking than automated processes and even search users, because human editors possess better intelligence than the best software and more clearly understand distinctions in pages, and human editors focus on areas of their expertise. For example, a human editor would more easily spot a page that is irrelevant but contains terms designed to get a high ranking from an automated process. However, human editors cannot process the volume of searches typically received by a search system and cannot keep up to date the queries they do process in view of the relevant pages that are added for consideration, modified or removed. In addition, in an open-ended query system, the number of possible queries can easily be in the millions. Even if editors concentrate only on the most common queries, the results change all the time as new data becomes available, old data becomes irrelevant, new meanings are created for old terms, or new events occur. If the results are based solely on what the human editors decided on one day, they might be stale and out of date the next day.

Yahoo proposes a way that human editors can adjust results for particular search queries:

Promotions and demotions might be absolute (“Rank this document first highest.”), relative to itself (“Rank this document four positions higher than it would otherwise be.”), or relative to another document (“Rank this document higher than this other document.”). Other types of promotion/demotion might include “remove this document from consideration no matter what the automatic system suggests”, “this set of documents are to be given equal (‘tied”) rankings”, “do not rank this document higher than position P” for some integer P, or the like.

A “blender” is then applied to automated search results and the editors’ inputs, resulting in a final ranking of search results.

An example in the patent is for the search query “medical conditions related to sports”. A human editor might lower the ranking of web sites for “tennis racket” in relation to web sites about “tennis elbow”.

Read Yahoo’s Patent (pdf).

News bytes to start your Tuesday.

Here are a few domain name news items for the week:

Domain Name Wire Radio is coming. More later.

Parked/Why Park Forum. Parked.com and WhyPark have created a user forum at forum.parked.com. Parked’s Donny Simonton has always been active on message boards, so you can rest assured you’ll get direct access through this forum. Hint: register for the forum to get more content.

Got travel traffic?. If you have a good portfolio of travel domains getting xx,xxx visitors per month, shoot me a note. I have someone who wants to talk to you.

Yahoo’s updated traffic quality algorithm has gone into effect. Some domain parkers are complaining, but many of them probably only make a dollar a day, anyway. Remember: quality of traffic matters!

XsitePro thoughts. I’ve long raved about Xsite Pro. The only problem is I still can’t find anyone that creates good custom templates for it. They’re always so amateur.

SedoPro Partner Forum. Just a few weeks until Sedo rolls out the red carpet for VIP parking clients. Most enjoyable few days you’ll ever spend with fellow domainers.

Domain name owners may see change in revenue this week.

Yahoo’s new click pricing algorithms kicked in mid-week in the United States, which will likely result in a small decrease in revenue for many domain name owners. Yahoo announced the change last month.

The new pricing will adjust pay-per-click prices based on the source’s quality of traffic. Industry sources tell Domain Name Wire that this change will affect long tail domain names across all keywords, whereas Yahoo’s previous traffic discounting mechanism only affected certain verticals and higher-traffic sources. Sources tell Domain Name Wire they expect revenue to decrease anywhere from 2%-12%, although smaller portfolios could see a greater change. Some domains may actually see a revenue boost if they deliver high quality traffic.

Yahoo has also released a new new Ad Delivery Report that will show the source of traffic. Combined with analytics tools, this report will show advertisers which traffic is converting for them and allow them to block domains that deliver low-performing traffic. This is similar to a tool already offered by rival Google.

Yahoo is first major tech company to try to get .tel domain name through domain arbitration.

Yahoo has filed for arbitration with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name Yahoo.tel. Yahoo is the first major tech company to try to get its hands on a .tel domain name through arbitration. Many other tech companies, including Google, registered their .tel domain names during the so-called “sunrise period” for about $300. Arbitration will cost the company about $1,500 plus legal fees.

.Tel is a different kind of domain name designed as a business card on the web. Information is stored in the DNS, and .tel domains cannot be developed into standard web sites.

Yahoo.tel is registered to a man in Spain and includes links to his blog and an association he is president of.

Change in pricing algorithm may lower parking payouts for domainers.

Yahoo! (YHOO) just announced changes to its pay-per-click advertising program that will change the amount advertisers pay for clicks based on click quality. The company says it plans to “expand the adjustments” it already makes to click charges based on the quality of traffic the advertising source delivers.

Although this may seem like it has an upside — good domain traffic would be rewarded — it appears to skew in the other direction. In an email to customers, Yahoo! wrote:

These adjustments will be based on our assessment of the performance of the traffic source, and will not be affected by the quality of your ads. Based on our analysis, we expect that most advertisers will see click charges drop or remain unchanged, while a small fraction of advertisers may experience an increase in click charges.