Patent: Google Might Modify Search Results Based on the Age of Searchers

Bill Slawski breaks down a newly granted Google patent Selectively modifying scores of youth-oriented content search results that shed some light on how Google could tailor the answers to those searchers based on their age.

Key points

• The patent makes a point of telling us that, “providing youth-focused content searches that simply restrict search results based on content labels are disadvantageous.”
• The patent talks about modifying the content’s score. For content labeled as having particular interest to younger users (e.g., labeled as “youth-oriented”), raw scores may be boosted, for example, by a multiplicative or additive factor.
• Like ratings for Movies, the content may be given labels that indicate appropriateness: Content is often assigned a content label indicating suitability for a particular audience, such as “Y” (young), “G” (general), “PG” (parental guidance), “TEEN” (teenager), “MA” (mature audience), and “X” (adult/X-rated).