Google trying to patent news ranking by quality
...According to that 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...

Looking at various phrases in news searches, I still the finger prints of Google's regular algorithm mixed with the brand name news sites.

Google still rates the title and content, but instead of Page Rank as the deciding factor, they are using the site's journalistic prominence. The patent application seems to back this up.

With proper optimization I can see the Des Moines Register compete with an unoptimized Washington Post news article.

This could potentially be another huge market for SEOs. From the client's view, it would still follow thier mandates. Increase circulation and market presence.

I don't think this will based on a few optimization points...if they are quantifying the quality of news item based on the quality of its source ... then this is something they do in the background...(so they will be pulling in all variables that relate to a particular news item and sorting out then posting on the Google news site..


This quote from the link set at the start of this thread:
"According to that 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."

All of this has very little to do with onpage optimization.... it remains to be seen just how much of an opportunity this is for SEO'ers...

Another way for Google to cut out the smaller players in favor of the big guys. The New York Times is by far the largest single news outlet so will that mean that their stories will always outrank someone elses.

Try some random searches in diverse topics and look at the news search results. Don't look only what is featured on the Google news home page.

"Torrential Rains", the Washington Times is ranked 1st with the key phrase prominently the first words of the title. But the SomaliNet is 5th with the same prominence .

"Gender Descrimination", little KQBZ of NY is 1st about the professional Mondaq Professional's News because it has both words in the title.

"Automatic weapons", 1st rank has the exact phrase in the title, 2nd rank has the exact phrase in the first paragraph.

Most interestingly is the news blogs coming into play. "Karl Rove" shows a news blog ranked first with "Rove" in the title and the exact phrase in the first paragraph. It is dated 2 week newer than the 2nd ranked little North Central Ohio news source. 17 days older is the Washington Times with the exact phrase in title. Freshness is a big factor also.