Editing Google Search (section)

=== PageRank ===
{{Main|PageRank}}

Google's rise was largely due to a patented [[algorithm]] called PageRank which helps rank web pages that match a given search string.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brin |first1=S. |author-link=Sergey Brin |last2=Page |first2=L. |author-link2=Larry Page |year=1998 |title=The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine |url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108120131/http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf |archive-date=2006-11-08 |url-status=live |journal=Computer Networks and ISDN Systems |volume=30 |issue=1–7 |pages=107–117 |citeseerx=10.1.1.115.5930 |doi=10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00110-X |s2cid=7587743 |issn=0169-7552}}</ref> When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed [[BackRub]] because the technology checks [[backlinks]] to determine a site's importance. Other keyword-based methods to rank search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would check how often the search terms occurred in a page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page. The PageRank algorithm instead analyzes human-generated [[hyperlink|links]] assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are also important. The algorithm computes a [[recursion|recursive]] score for pages, based on the weighted sum of other pages linking to them. PageRank is thought to [[correlation|correlate]] well with human concepts of importance. In addition to PageRank, Google, over the years, has added many other secret criteria for determining the ranking of resulting pages. This is reported to comprise over 250 different indicators,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Corporate Information: Technology Overview |url=https://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html |access-date=November 15, 2009 |archive-date=February 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210175913/http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Levy |first=Steven |date=February 22, 2010 |title=Exclusive: How Google's Algorithm Rules the Web |url=https://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/ |magazine=Wired |publisher=Wired.com |volume=17 |issue=12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110416062117/http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/ |archive-date=April 16, 2011}}</ref> the specifics of which are kept secret to avoid difficulties created by scammers and help Google maintain an edge over its competitors globally.

PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for [[RankDex]], developed by [[Robin Li]] in 1996. Larry Page's patent for PageRank filed in 1998 includes a citation to Li's earlier patent. Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine [[Baidu]] in 2000.<ref>[http://www.rankdex.com/about.html "About: RankDex"] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120120002301/http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |date= January 20, 2012}}, ''[[RankDex]]''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Method for node ranking in a linked database |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6285999 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |access-date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Google Patents}}</ref>

In a potential hint of Google's future direction of their Search algorithm, Google's then chief executive [[Eric Schmidt]], said in a 2007 interview with the ''[[Financial Times]]'': "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?{{'"}}.<ref>[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c3e49548-088e-11dc-b11e-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html "Google's goal: to organize your daily life"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019004110/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c3e49548-088e-11dc-b11e-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html |date=October 19, 2011 }}. ''[[Financial Times]]''.</ref> Schmidt reaffirmed this during a 2010 interview with ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'': "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."<ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212 "Google and the Search for the Future"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730120818/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212 |date=July 30, 2017 }}. ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''.</ref>