Datasheet

If you search for PageRank on Google, you find the following description:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator
of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A,
for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes
the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help
to make other pages “important.”
The PageRank that a Web page receives is determined by the number of links that are pointing to the page.
So each link is basically a vote but since Google is not a democratic country, not all votes are equal. Some
votes are more important and have greater value. PageRank gives a little more value to the votes on pages
that are themselves listed higher in the PageRank.
Some votes can count against you. Webmasters, in order to increase their PageRank, add their
pages to link farms. These are locations on the Internet that will add links to your page. Google
punishes this behavior by removing the page from the Google index.
Of most importance to PageRank is the link to a Web page. The type of Web sites that link to a page will
most determine the PageRank. For example, when there is a Web page that talks about Labradors (breed of
dogs) and the American Kennel Club (
www.akc.org) has a link to that page, this link is given greater
weight than perhaps a link from a personal Web page. This is because the AKC Web page is specifically
about dogs and breeds and is likely to have a very high PageRank of its own.
More About Keywords and Queries
Now that you know a little bit more about how Google searches through Web pages, determines relevancy,
and PageRank, it’s time to understand a little bit more about the most fundamental part of doing a Web
search, the keyword.
A keyword is a significant or descriptive word that defines the topic on which you are searching. In other
words, keywords define the core of your search. To best find content on the Web you must use the most
efficient keywords. Using more keywords narrows your search but doesn’t necessarily make it more effi-
cient. You are limited to using a maximum of ten keywords. When you narrow your search, fewer search
results are returned, but you may make the search so narrow that you miss what you were looking for. It is
sometimes better to group keywords into a search phrase, as described in the first part of this chapter or by
creating a search expression.
Introducing search expressions
A search expression is a set of keywords and operators such as and, or, +, and –. Using search expressions can
often help you narrow your search most effectively. Here is a sneak peak at the more detailed discussion in
Chapter 2. Use the + sign before any word to tell Google that this word must be in the results. This can be
particularly important because Google often leaves out common words that it considers unimportant to the
meaning or context. Common words such as who, what, when, where, and how are often ignored when
included as keywords. When a common word must be considered, precede it with the plus sign like this:
+how +now brown cow.
Without the plus signs, Google may have ignored the keywords how and now.
You can forget about capitalizing words. Google ignores all capitalization.
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Searching the Web
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