Web search leader Google has applied for US and international patents on technology to rank stories on its news site based on the quality of the news source.
According to the patent application, factors determining such rankings would include: the amount of important coverage produced by an identified news source; a human opinion of that source; network traffic to the source; circulation statistics; staff size; breadth of coverage; and the number of bureaus the news source operates.
Google's search engine now automatically harvests some 4,500 news sources and highlights stories, typically by popularity and timeliness, although Google does not disclose full details of its ranking system.
The technology Google is attempting to patent may help the company choose the most reliable information sources, although some web commentators have said it will create a bias toward mainstream news sources.
Online news has become an increasingly competitive market as newspaper circulation declines and mainstream news organisations search for new ways to hold on to readers.