Pagerank and Futbol
This article, found on MIT’s online Technology Review publication, talks about an impressively creative application of Google’s famous algorithm. Two academics at a Macedonian University have used PageRank to determine the most successful national soccer team according to World Cup Record. Before my analysis of how they did this, allow me to summarize the PageRank algorithm as we learned in class.
PageRank ranks the order of web results according to the number and popularity of other sites which link the results. In PageRank, the more ties to a certain web page, and the more popular the nodes a certain webpage is tied to, determines its order in search results. In this way, the algorithm created by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin relies heavily on networks, and the nodes and ties of the internet.
As applied by Verica Lazova and Lasko Basnarkov, PageRank or “FutbolRank” (perhaps) ranks international soccer teams by their record (W/L) and the strength of their opponent (based on the opponents record). In this application of the page rank algorithm, ties between nodes can be either positive or negative (W/L), and the polarity of each node is determined by the opponent’s record. The PageRank application found that Brazil is the most successful national soccer team, which is not surprising, as they state, given that they’ve won the tournament a record 5 times.
This is particularly interesting because it opens a whole new can of worms regarding what this algorithm can be applied to. Originally intended to intuitively rank web results, PageRank can clearly be applied to a multitude of scenarios. The most socially recognizable consumer product? The most influential artist of generations according to people, their social influence, and their attitude towards songs? Perhaps even an individuals general popularity. When you start to think about it, the applications for PageRank are certainly plentiful, and perhaps endless.