Is it possible that this service would simply be used to provide the 'seed' sites for a search oriented Trust Rank implementation? If it enabled them to build a consistent and well balanced set of weights for a wide range of sites, it would certainly pay for itself simply by making their search options that much more effective and comprehensive.
It could also add another way for them to calculate page rank. People going directly to a site without searching for it, would be able to add their 'vote' for the site without having to add a link to it from a website.
Just a couple of random thoughts.
A possible system?
on
Google TrustRank
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· Score: 2, Informative
Couldn't they just look for links in gmail messages and use those as weights in a trust system?
Links in messages identified as spam could be given a negative weight. That weight could be determined by the number of people identifying messages with that link as spam. Links from those sites would being given less trust than a completely unknown page, unless they are positively weighted themselves or linked to by a positively weighted site. Links found in non spam messages could be given positive weights by the same rules.
This would also have the advantage of offering spam filtering rules based on trustrank weights. Setting a minimum trustrank would allow the system to weight the email by checking the links in the email, and using their trustrank for the message itself. The automated spam filtering gmail offers could thus affect trustrank, increasing the impact of both systems (email and searching) and possibly allowing it to be extended to google groups/Usenet filtering.
Potential Examples
(moving each weight given by linking 1 point towards 0)
site1 [+5] - url found in 5 non spam messages site2 [-5] - url found in 5 spam messages
site3 [+4] - url linked to from site1 (5 + -1) site4 [-4] - url linked to from site2 (-5 + 1)
site5 [0] - url linked to from site1 and site2 (5 + -5) site6 [3] - url linked to from site1, site3, and site2. (((5 + 4) + -5) + -1)
Email1 [-5] - contains links to site2, site4, and site6 (((-5 + -4) + 3) + 1)
Not perfect perhaps, but workable and easy to combine with a simple rule set for weighting parts of a url to create an 'intelligent' system guided by user preferences.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it possible that this service would simply be used to provide the 'seed' sites for a search oriented Trust Rank implementation? If it enabled them to build a consistent and well balanced set of weights for a wide range of sites, it would certainly pay for itself simply by making their search options that much more effective and comprehensive.
It could also add another way for them to calculate page rank. People going directly to a site without searching for it, would be able to add their 'vote' for the site without having to add a link to it from a website.
Just a couple of random thoughts.
Couldn't they just look for links in gmail messages and use those as
weights in a trust system?
Links in messages identified as spam could be given a negative
weight. That weight could be determined by the number of people
identifying messages with that link as spam. Links from those sites
would being given less trust than a completely unknown page, unless they
are positively weighted themselves or linked to by a positively weighted
site. Links found in non spam messages could be given positive weights
by the same rules.
This would also have the advantage of offering spam filtering rules
based on trustrank weights. Setting a minimum trustrank would allow the
system to weight the email by checking the links in the email, and using
their trustrank for the message itself. The automated spam filtering
gmail offers could thus affect trustrank, increasing the impact of both
systems (email and searching) and possibly allowing it to be extended
to google groups/Usenet filtering.
Potential Examples
(moving each weight given by linking 1 point towards 0)
site1 [+5] - url found in 5 non spam messages
site2 [-5] - url found in 5 spam messages
site3 [+4] - url linked to from site1 (5 + -1)
site4 [-4] - url linked to from site2 (-5 + 1)
site5 [0] - url linked to from site1 and site2 (5 + -5)
site6 [3] - url linked to from site1, site3, and site2. (((5 + 4) + -5) + -1)
Email1 [-5] - contains links to site2, site4, and site6 (((-5 + -4) + 3) + 1)
Not perfect perhaps, but workable and easy to combine with a simple
rule set for weighting parts of a url to create an 'intelligent' system
guided by user preferences.