[LINK] Personalized PageRank

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Appears definite .. Web2 search engines ..

And two people, using the same search-terms,
might never visit the same sites ever again.

--
Bill Slawski, 
www.SEObytheSea.com 
and WebProNews email
Thursday, Jan 17, 2008

As complex as Google's 'PageRank' may be, search experts at Yahoo seem to
think it's not complex enough. Based on patent filings, Yahoo is dabbling
in ranking algorithms that incorporate more user behavior data in advance
of the company's next run at toppling Google's haloed relevance. 

Google is highly secretive about how its search engine calculates Page 
Rank. If history is any indication, they're already way ahead on 
behavioral factoring. Nonetheless, Yahoo can afford the best search 
engineers in the business .. 

 Some Yahoo assumptions about Google PageRank, and flaws associated: 

Internal and external links are often weighed equally even though internal 
links can be less reliable and more self-promotional. Some links, like
disclaimer links, are rarely followed. 

PageRank ignores that webpages are often purchased and repurposed, decay 
or become less valuable over time at variable rates. 

Current calculations, like TrustRank, are engineered more to combat
webspam than to reflect actual user behavior. 

Sometimes PageRank deals with links in bulk, aggregating according host or
domain, also known as blocked PageRank. 

 What Yahoo plans to do about it: 

Measure link weight – influenced by the frequency with which users follow
a link 

Note when links are ignored and users leave (teleport) to another page of
their choosing 

Calculate the probability that a user stops and reads a webpage rather
than views it and moves on. 

Incorporate user data into the algorithm – "User Sensitive PageRank to 
reflect the navigational behavior of the user population with regard to
documents, pages, sites, and domains visited, and links selected." 
                                                
Personalize PageRank based on demographic information – age, gender,
income, user location) 

Emphasize recent information 
                                                
Weigh anchor text more heavily – the patent filing calls anchor text "one 
of the most useful features used in ranking retrieved Web search results" 


--
Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia