Google is developing technology that could position it to compete with a new breed of digital media companies that are generating story ideas for the internet by mining online search data for under-covered topics.

These new digital companies hope to produce content more cheaply than traditional media operations by using statistical analysis to identify topics of interest to consumers and then hiring freelancers to produce relevant stories or videos. However, Google obtained a patent this year for a system that would help it identify “inadequate content” on the web, based on comparisons of what people search for and what they find, executives who have reviewed the filing said. The filing said data from the Google system could be sold to online publishers or given away, which could complicate the plans of companies such as Demand Media, Associated Content and AOL that are developing systems to generate ideas for web content using software algorithms.

“Prospective product ann-ouncements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications,” a Google spokesman said. “We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services; some don't.”