Google on algorithm tweaking

Discussion in 'Google' started by minstrel, Nov 4, 2007.

  1. #1
    An article published in June 2007 in the New York Times, Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine, talks about the ongoing process of Google's ranking algorithms and includes an interview with Amit Singhal, who they describe as "the master of what Google calls its 'ranking algorithm' — the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer each user’s question".

    Some excerpts:

    "Tweaking and quality control involve a balancing act. 'You make a change, and it affects some queries positively and others negatively,” [...] 'You can’t only launch things that are 100 percent positive.'"

    "[...] Any of Google’s 10,000 employees can use its 'Buganizer' system to report a search problem, and about 100 times a day they do."​

    "Recently, a search for 'French Revolution' returned too many sites about the recent French presidential election campaign — in which candidates opined on various policy revolutions — rather than the ouster of King Louis XVI.

    A search-engine tweak gave more weight to pages with phrases like 'French Revolution' rather than pages that simply had both words."​

    "PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years."​


    ...more
     
    minstrel, Nov 4, 2007 IP
    mcfox and Blogmaster like this.
  2. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #2
    Interesting, maybe the whole pagerank stunt was just really a PR stunt to help promote some new product or service coming soon! :)
     
    astup1didiot, Nov 4, 2007 IP
  3. JohnS0N

    JohnS0N Notable Member

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    #3
    Thanks, very nice article full of information if you read between the lines.
     
    JohnS0N, Nov 4, 2007 IP
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  4. bogart

    bogart Notable Member

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    #4
    Interesting article especially on the “diversity” and the local results
     
    bogart, Nov 4, 2007 IP
  5. ForgottenCreature

    ForgottenCreature Notable Member

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    #5
    Thanks for the article. I'm sure they'll continue to tweak.
     
    ForgottenCreature, Nov 13, 2007 IP
  6. TadSenseQ

    TadSenseQ Banned

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    #6
    Yes, tweaking will continue surely
     
    TadSenseQ, Nov 13, 2007 IP
  7. Danny.Antonio

    Danny.Antonio Peon

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    #7
    Wow! Thank's a lot for all those good information. Yep, Search Engine tweak.
     
    Danny.Antonio, Nov 16, 2007 IP
  8. seconnection

    seconnection Peon

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    #8
    interesting post
     
    seconnection, Nov 16, 2007 IP
  9. freediver

    freediver Peon

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    #9
    It's just amazing what an effect chaining the weight one a single variable in google search code has to the rest of the world. Would be my ultimate playground :)
     
    freediver, Nov 16, 2007 IP