Google Page Rank: an End to an Era
You’ve probably heard of the underlying drama behind Google Page Rank—competition, link-buying, and even a lawsuit (http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case337.cfm)—drama that forced Google to make these statistics private this past Spring. What you might not know is that Google Page Rank, originally introduced in 2000, was actually a patented network analysis algorithm that assigned “ranks to nodes in a linked database, such as any database of documents containing citations, the world wide web or any other hypermedia database.” In viewing the world wide web as including massive information networks, with individual pages serving as nodes, Google analyzed edge strength to determine individual popularity.
While it was a brilliant technology, Google’s Page Rank might serve as a warning to the accuracy of network analysis—notably in cases when members of the network have too much control over its intricacies. Danny Sullivan, a Founding Editor of Search Engine Lands offers his own view that Google Page Rank “ruined the web.” Sullivan notes the rise of the “link-selling economy” as a fundamental issue generated by Page Rank—page-owners understood that by creating these artificial connections between pages, they were able to impact edge strength and supposedly gain popularity. This became an even bigger issue when it started to impact the user experience, with irrelevant links flooding web pages in order to impact the network.
What can we take away from Google Page Rank? First of all, it’s amazing to see how many examples of network analysis exist around us without us even knowing it. I always knew Google Page Rank existed—I never knew how it actually worked. Second, its an interesting example of edge strength—a topic we touched on in lecture when discussing triadic closure. Finally, it demonstrates what can happen when members of a network are cognizant of its existence and try to impact it for personal gain. The knowledge of networks and their analyses needs to be protected in order to maintain stability and accuracy.
http://searchengineland.com/rip-google-pagerank-retrospective-244286