Master Patent Database — Sorted by Year
Complete chronological index of 200+ Google patents affecting SEO and search ranking.
1998-2001: Foundation Era
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US6285999B1 | 1998-2001 | Method for Node Ranking in a Linked Database (PageRank) | Link Authority |
| US5848412A | 1998 | User Controlled Browser Identification Disclosing Mechanism | Tracking |
2002-2005: Early Ranking Patents
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US20020156781A1 | 2002 | Delayed Storage of Cookies with Approval Capability | Tracking/Cookies |
| US20020078191A1 | 2002 | User Tracking in Web Session Spanning Multiple Resources | Session Tracking |
| US7058628B1 | 2003-2007 | Method for Node Ranking in a Linked Database | PageRank |
| US7308643B1 | 2003-2007 | Anchor Tag Indexing in a Web Crawler System | Internal Linking |
| US8224827B2 | 2003-2012 | Document Ranking Based on Document Classification | Domain Signals |
| US6714926B1 | 2004 | Use of Browser Cookies to Store Structured Data | Tracking |
| US7260573B1 | 2004-2007 | Personalizing Anchor Text Scores in a Search Engine | Anchor Text |
| US7533092B2 | 2004-2009 | Link-Based Spam Detection | Spam Detection |
| US8046371B2 | 2005-2011 | Scoring Local Search Results Based on Location Prominence | Local SEO |
| US7509315B1 | 2005-2009 | Managing URLs | URL Structure |
| US7565358B2 | 2005-2007 | Agent Rank (Author Credibility via Signed Links) | E-E-A-T |
| US20060265495A1 | 2006 | First-party Cookie for Tracking Web Traffic | Cookies |
2006-2010: Algorithm Refinement Era
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US7603350B1 | 2006-2012 | Search Result Ranking Based on Trust (TrustRank) | Trust/Authority |
| US20060218114A1 | 2006 | System and Method for Location Based Search | Local SEO |
| US20060294134A1 | 2006 | Trust Propagation Through Social Networks | Social/Trust |
| US7953763B2 | 2006-2011 | Method for Detecting Link Spam in Hyperlinked Databases | Spam Detection |
| US7657626B1 | 2007-2010 | Click Fraud Detection | CTR/Fraud |
| US7908277B1 | 2006-2011 | Annotating Links Based on Ranks of Documents | Internal Linking |
| US8156099B2 | 2007-2012 | Interpreting Local Search Queries | Local SEO |
| US7917491B1 | 2007-2011 | Click Fraud Prevention System and Method | CTR/Fraud |
| US8312010B1 | 2007-2012 | Local Business Ranking Using Mapping Information | Local SEO |
| US8417713B1 | 2007-2013 | Sentiment Detection as Ranking Signal for Reviewable Entities | Reviews |
| US7996210B2 | 2008-2011 | Large-Scale Sentiment Analysis | Reviews |
| US9081861B2 | 2008-2015 | Uniform Resource Locator Canonicalization | URL Structure |
| US8078951B2 | 2008 | Depth Indicator for Links | Internal Linking |
| US8601109B2 | 2009-2013 | Incremental Browser-Based Device Fingerprinting | Device ID |
| US8694489B1 | 2010-2014 | Map Spam Detection | Local SEO/Spam |
2011-2014: Quality & Trust Era
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US20110276562A1 | 2011 | Visualizing Site Structure | Internal Linking |
| US8868481B2 | 2011-2014 | Video Recommendation Based on Video Co-Occurrence Statistics | YouTube/Video |
| US8126882B2 | 2011-2013 | Credibility of an Author of Online Content | E-E-A-T |
| US8150842B2 | 2011-2013 | Reputation of an Author of Online Content | E-E-A-T |
| US8554601B1 | 2011-2013 | Managing Content Based on Reputation | Trust |
| US8442984B1 | 2011-2013 | Website Quality Signal Generation | Quality |
| US8818995B1 | 2011-2013 | Search Result Ranking Based on Trust | Trust |
| US8352467B1 | 2011-2014 | Search Result Ranking Based on Trust | Trust |
| US8843477B1 | 2011-2014 | Onsite and Offsite Search Ranking Results | Domain Signals |
| US8458196B1 | 2012-2013 | System and Method for Determining Topic Authority | E-E-A-T |
| US8606792B1 | 2012-2013 | Scoring Authors of Posts | E-E-A-T |
| US8601008B2 | 2012 | System for Determining Geographic Range of Local Intent | Local SEO |
| US20120246134A1 | 2012 | Detection and Analysis of Backlink Activity | Link Analysis |
| US20120158633A1 | 2012 | Knowledge Graph Based Search System | Entity/E-E-A-T |
| US8594996B2 | 2012-2014 | NLP-Based Entity Recognition and Disambiguation | Entity |
| US8549014B2 | 2012-2013 | Content Freshness Scoring | Freshness |
| US9015037B2 | 2013-2015 | Interactive Fact Checking System | E-E-A-T |
| US8645396B2 | 2013-2015 | Reputation Scoring of an Author | E-E-A-T |
| US9031929B1 | 2013-2015 | Site Quality Score | Quality |
| US8756239B2 | 2013-2014 | Real Time Content Searching in Social Network | Social Media |
| US9792330B1 | 2013-2017 | Identifying Local Experts for Local Search | Local SEO/Reviews |
| US8707459B2 | 2012-2013 | Content Originality (Original-to-Copied Ratio) | Content Quality |
| US8898296B2 | 2012-2014 | Boilerplate Detection (DOM Tree Analysis) | Content Quality |
| US8868536B1 | 2014 | Real Time Map Spam Detection | Local SEO/Spam |
2015-2018: Machine Learning Era
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US9106958B2 | 2015 | Video Recommendation Based on Affect | YouTube/Video |
| US9165040B1 | 2015 | Producing a Ranking for Pages Using Distances in a Web-Link Graph | Link Authority |
| US9294576B2 | 2015 | Social Media Impact Assessment | Social Media |
| US9324112B2 | 2016 | Ranking Authors in Social Media Systems | Social/E-E-A-T |
| US9519683B1 | 2016 | Inferring Social Affinity Based on Search Result Interactions | Social Media |
| US9684871B2 | 2016-2018 | Efficient Fact Checking Method and System | E-E-A-T |
| US9953049B1 | 2018 | Producing a Ranking for Pages Using Distances | Link Authority |
| US9875313B1 | 2017 | Ranking Authors and Their Content in Same Framework | E-E-A-T |
| US9742719B2 | 2017 | Method for Real-Time Viral Event Prediction | Social Media |
| US10742591B2 | 2015-2020 | System for Domain Reputation Scoring | Domain Signals |
| US10210256B2 | 2019 | Anchor Tag Indexing in a Web Crawler System | Internal Linking |
| US10268641B1 | 2016-2019 | Search Result Ranking Based on Trust | Trust |
| US10387431B2 | 2015-2019 | Video Recommendation Based on Video Titles | YouTube/Video |
| US10777229B2 | 2019 | Generating Moving Thumbnails for Videos | YouTube/Video |
| US10452978B2 | 2019 | Attention Mechanism (Transformers/BERT Foundation) | Neural/AI |
| US10229166B1 | 2019 | NavBoost (Implicit User Behavior) | User Signals |
| US9558233B1 | 2015 | Selection Quality Score (Dwell Time) | User Signals |
2019-2022: Modern Era
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US10594823B1 | 2020 | Storing Information in Browser Storage Area | Tracking |
| US10810270B2 | 2020 | Web Search Based on Browsing History and Emotional State | User Behavior |
| US10152544B1 | 2020 | Viral Content Propagation Analyzer | Social Media |
| US10846613B2 | 2020 | Measuring and Predicting Content Dissemination | Social Media |
| US11003865B1 | 2021 | RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) | Neural/AI |
| US11120839B1 | 2019-2021 | Segmenting and Classifying Video Content | YouTube/Video |
| US11275895B1 | 2020-2022 | Generating Author Vectors | E-E-A-T |
| US11418420B2 | 2021 | Process for Identifying and Classifying Video Data | YouTube/Video |
| US11481438 | 2020-2022 | Watch Sequence Modeling for Recommendation Ranking | YouTube/Video |
| US11405349B1 | 2021 | Viral Message Detection and Control in Social Networks | Social Media |
| US11615485B2 | 2022 | Predicting Engagement on Social Media | Social Media |
| US20210004416A1 | 2021 | Topical Authority Ranking | E-E-A-T |
| US12197501B2 | 2022+ | Historical Data-Based Video Categorizer | YouTube/Video |
| US11782998B2 | 2022 | Dense Retrieval with Transformers | Neural/AI |
| US12099533B2 | 2022-2024 | Dense Document Representations | Neural/AI |
2023-2026: Recent Patents
| Patent Number | Year | Title | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| US20230053235A1 | 2023 | Predicting Video Quality Based on Viewer Retention | YouTube/Video |
| US20240154941A1 | 2024 | Privacy Preserving Identity Resolution via Page Content | Tracking |
| US12353469B1 | 2024 | LLM Output Verification / Source Checking | Neural/AI |
| US20250124067A1 | 2025 | Text Ranking with Pairwise Ranking Prompting | Neural/AI |
| US20250225400A1 | 2025 | Improving LLM Performance by Controlling Training Content | Neural/AI |
Patents by Category Summary
PageRank & Link Authority (15+ patents)
Core foundation: US6285999B1, US7058628B1, US9165040B1, US9953049B1
Local SEO & Maps (28+ patents)
Key patents: US8046371B2, US8312010B1, US8694489B1, US9792330B1
YouTube & Video Ranking (20+ patents)
Key patents: US8868481B2, US10387431B2, US11481438, US10777229B2
E-E-A-T & Citations (25+ patents)
Key patents: US8126882B2, US8458196B1, US9015037B2, US11275895B1
Social Media Signals (30+ patents)
Key patents: US8756239B2, US9294576B2, US9324112B2, US10152544B1
Reviews & Sentiment (12+ patents)
Key patents: US8417713B1, US7996210B2, US9792330B1
Internal Linking & Anchor Text (18+ patents)
Key patents: US7308643B1, US7260573B1, US7908277B1
Neural / AI Search (40+ patents)
Key patents: US10452978B2, US11003865B1, US12099533B2, US12353469B1
Domain & URL Structure (12+ patents)
Key patents: US9081861B2, US7509315B1, US10742591B2
CTR & User Signals (111 patents across 8 categories)
Key patents: US10229166B1, US7657626B1, US9031929B1, US9558233B1
Quick Reference: Most Important Patents
The "Big 10" Foundation Patents
- US6285999B1 (1998) — PageRank — Foundation of link authority
- US7603350B1 (2006) — TrustRank — Trust-based ranking
- US8046371B2 (2005) — Location Prominence — Local SEO foundation
- US8126882B2 (2011) — Author Credibility — E-E-A-T foundation
- US8458196B1 (2012) — Topic Authority — Topical expertise
- US8417713B1 (2011) — Sentiment Detection — Review signals
- US8868481B2 (2011) — Video Co-Occurrence — YouTube recommendations
- US9081861B2 (2008) — URL Canonicalization — URL handling
- US7533092B2 (2004) — Link Spam Detection — Spam prevention
- US10229166B1 (2019) — NavBoost — User behavior signals
Research Notes
- All patent numbers verified against patents.google.com
- Filing dates may differ from publication dates
- Some patents have continuation applications
- Patent expiration varies; check current status on USPTO
Last Updated: 2026 Total Patents Catalogued: 200+ Research Status: Comprehensive