The Man Behind Google's Ranking Algorithm

nbauman writes "New York Times interview with Amit Singhal, who is in charge of Google's ranking algorithm. They use 200 "signals" and "classifiers," of which PageRank is only one. "Freshness" defines how many recently changed pages appear in a result. They assumed old pages were better, but when they first introduced Google Finance, the algorithm couldn't find it because it was too new. Some topics are "hot". "When there is a blackout in New York, the first articles appear in 15 minutes; we get queries in two seconds," said Singhal. Classifiers infer information about the type of search, whether it is a product to buy, a place, company or person. One classifier identifies people who aren't famous. Another identifies brand names. A final check encourages "diversity" in the results, for example, a manufacturer's page, a blog review, and a comparison shopping site."

Comments

Hrm, and all this time I though it was...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pigeon Rank?

...only one?

[dwater]

> They use 200 "signals" and "classifiers," of which PageRank is only one.

How many did they expect PageRank to be? In the words of someone immortal, "There can be only one.".

Re:apple vs Apple

[The New Andy]

Oh yeah. Woops. That isn't as interesting :-)

Now I understand

[Timesprout]

Search over the last few years has moved from Give me what I typed to Give me what I want, says Mr. Singhal

So this is why all my results are links to lesbian porn regardless of what I search for.

Re:Google sucks.

[WrongSizeGlass]

Google Search is a primitive tool used by fanboys "Googling" for pictures of Natalie Portman. Ha! Shows what you know. The only pics I search for are of a tall drink of Texas water named Patricia Vonne and of Cowboy Neal in his homemade Hulk costume. Who knew the Hulk wore a tri-corner hat & rainbow wrestling boots?

Re:Amit Singhal ...

[Aeamarth]

Isn't he the indian google guy?

Toileat seat

[rbarreira]

Does the algorithm account for the toilet seat's positon?

Re:Feature Request

[Fred_A]

Haven't had much trouble with the click through sites but when looking for some information on anything that can potentially be sold (or even, as I recently experienced, has been sold in the not too distant past but hasn't been in the last five years), the shopping sites are a real problem

This item you're searching for hasn't been in inventory for 6 years since nobody makes it anymore, would you like to read a review ? : be the first to write one !

Yay.

Re:North America Centric

[aldheorte]

If the UK sites in particular are the ones you want out of you search results, compare these searches on Google:

digestives london

digestives london -inurl:.uk