Topical affinity badges in information retrieval

Abstract

Topical affinity badges in information retrieval is described, for example, where graphical elements are presented together with ranked search results from a search engine, to indicate a degree of association between an author of a document and a topic. In various embodiments, a measure of an author's affinity to a topic is predicted using a machine learning system that takes as input author features derived from documents of the author. In various examples topical affinity scores or labels are used to generate badges and/or to index documents at an index of a search engine. For example, badges may be presented with ranked search results, in pop up displays or in other ways. In examples author features relating to any of recency, frequency and presentation of an author's documents are generated, where presentation features may relate to biographical information such as experience, qualifications, and previous documents.