Cracking Google’s Page Ranking

Lately it seems that anytime anyone talks about technology, all you ever hear about is “Google”. Google this, and Google that. Not only has Google weeded its way into daily conversations, but, ultimately, Google dominates, and is king of the Internet. A recent article discussed how, websites continuously vie to rank high in a Google search. No one seems to know the secret behind what has been referred to as Google’s “secret sauce”, or “Holy Grail of online marketing”, or in plain terms, Google’s PageRank algorithm. Many have tried to crack it, mathematicians have tried to make sense of it, but no one has been able to uncover the mysteries behind Google’s PageRank algorithm. Google’s PageRank algorithm goes above and beyond just assigning popular websites a high page rank. A good analogy that was given in the article was that it’s like a popularity contest between all websites. Everyone votes for who they think is the best page, and usually the one with the most votes wins. However, Google goes beyond this. “Google looks at who voted for who, and assigns a value to the importance of the site that casts the vote and that site can pass on its popularity and importance to the site it linked to.” Although, it’s not easy to get a high page ranking from Google, Google spokesmen claim that if one follows the guidelines for higher page rankings, then it’s not that difficult. Basically, the trick is to “pretend Google isn’t even there”. While Google has been questioned supposedly taking part in deliberate de-ranking, Google claims that every decision about what pages get what ranking, is determined by it’s complex algorithm. Their number one concerns are the quality of results, and preventing spam.

As a frequent user of Google, I have never been left disappointed by what my searches return. Although, it’s possible that Google can be a bite over selective about which websites receive what page rank, Google does a good job in making sure that it’s users receive high quality results and find exactly what they are looking for. It will be interesting to see how all of the recent law suits against Google pan out, and if one day someone will be able to crack the code of Google’s highly treasured, PageRank algorithm.