Last week we covered a new research paper Google published on ranking web pages based on facts. It turns out that some people felt that Google may be using it as a ranking factor in the near future, but that is rarely the case. Either they are already using it or it is just an idea Google wants on paper for patent purposes. Most of the time, it is for patent purposes.

But in the Google+ hangout from yesterday, someone asked John about it at 49:21 minutes into the hangout.

In short, Google’s John Mueller said it is just a paper and not something they currently use to rank web pages.

Question:

Answer:

Here is the video at the start time of the question:

Matt Cutts said something similar in the past, just because Google owns a patent, doesn’t mean they use it.

Forum discussion at Google+.