How ranking works

The signals we use, what each one is worth, and how to change what you see.

The short version

Every article is scored twice. Once by our own engine, from the things you have done on this site, and once by an external ranking service that re-orders our best candidates. The two scores are blended, and the result is the order of the page. The strongest story leads; the further down you scroll, the less confident we are that a story is for you.

What the ranking reads

• What you open. A click is the most common signal and the weakest one — plenty of headlines get opened and regretted.
• What you like or dislike. A deliberate verdict, and weighted well above a click. These need an account, because an opinion is only useful if it follows you between devices.
• What you share. The strongest signal we have. Passing something on is a public act, and people are careful about what they attach their name to.
• What you skip or hide. Negative signals are blunt on purpose: one not interested outweighs several accidental clicks.
• Freshness, source and subject. How recent a piece is, which newsroom filed it, and what it is about.
• Difference. Stories too similar to what you have just read are pushed down, so a single running story cannot take over the page.

Why sharing counts most

Ranking systems become whatever they measure. Optimise for clicks and you get headlines written to be clicked. We weight sharing highest because it is the hardest signal to game with a misleading headline: a reader who feels tricked does not pass the article on.

Changing what you see

The ranking is a default, not a verdict. Settings let you mute a publication or a keyword outright, switch to strict reverse-chronological order, or sort by what readers are sharing rather than by what fits you. Muting is absolute — a muted source will not appear however well it scores.

What we do not do with it

We do not display your profile, sell it, or make it available to advertisers. Ranking data stays with the ranking. See the privacy policy for what is stored and for how long.