In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
crunching the mathematics that would make sense of the mess of links
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
The PageRank score would be combined with a number of more traditional information retrieval techniques, such as comparing the keyword to text on the page and determining relevance by examining factors such as frequency, font size, capitalization, and position of the keyword.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Ted Nelson, whose ambitious Xanadu Project (though never completed) was a vision of disparate information linked by “hypertext” connections.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
A signal says to the search engine, “Hey, consider me for your results!” PageRank itself is a signal. A web page with a high PageRank number sends a message to the search engine that it’s a more reputable source than those with lower numbers.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
This search engine transformed the way people worked, entertained themselves, and learned.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
network. In effect, the web was an infinite database, a sort of crazily expanding universe of human knowledge that, in theory, could hold every insight, thought, image, and product for sale.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
When pressed, all of them would admit that in the race between the omnivorous web and their burgeoning technology, the web was winning
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Some of the others were supporters of the public interest, monitoring the privacy rights and pocketbooks of citizens.
Steven Levy • In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Kleinberg was trying to understand network behavior. Page and Brin were building something.