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Google’s search algorithm

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/google-tests-changes-to-its-search-algorithm-how-search-works.html

Google invited CNBC to learn how their search algorithm works following a myriad of recent bias complaints accusing them of skewing search results to contain pages with political bias and stifling competition by offering their own services over other sites’ services. The topic of this particular meeting was whether to add photos next to certain search results. CNBC reported that the meeting took all of 20 minutes and that Google’s decision-making process was very much driven by data. They then explained how the search algorithm works on a high level using PageRank. Testing new ideas out involves asking raters to determine whether the old or new version is better, and these raters are now required to also consider how reputable the author of a page is. This seems reasonable, but I also wonder how those who are just starting out are able to establish themselves on the internet if pages with no clear or reputable author are consistently ranked as low quality.

This data is pertinent to the concept of hubs and authorities we learned in class. PageRank, which Google is known for and which was named after co-founder Larry Page, is based on this concept, the idea that “if a lot of people on the web find a page useful enough to link to it, it’s probably more relevant than a page that everybody ignores.” A page with a lot of links to it would be considered an authority, and those that point to it would be considered hubs. With Google’s new reputable author considerations, it may now be more difficult to become an authority.

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