Revolution of Web – Google Page Ranking

After the invention of internet and web, there have been revolutionary introductions to this area of information technology such as HTML & scripting languages. But what made the internet and web upside down? Surely it is this company called Google. Today, having a net worth of $200 billion, it continues to make drastic changes of people that use internet and the web. What made this fortune for Google? Yes, this is a very interesting question which has an answer that can be written through a whole book. The short answer is: Google’s Page Ranking algorithm.

What is Page Ranking? If you have ever installed Google toolbar, you may observer an indicator saying “PageRank”. This is the indicator which shows the numerical weight of the popularity (linkage, to be precise) of the page you are viewing. Let’s have a brief look at the logic behind PageRank.

First of all, PageRank is a registered trademark for Google and patented for Sanford University. This is due to the fact that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google developed the algorithm at Sanford University. Basically the fuel for page ranking is the vast link structure of World Wide Web. Using this linking structure, individual pages are given a value and based on the individual page’s value; they are listed in the search results. Highly valued pages will be displayed among the top search results. So, now you may have an understanding why people are so much bothered and competitive about getting a high value for PageRank. Assume there are two pages of X and Y and there is a link from page X to page Y. For Google this is a vote between X and Y pages, from page X for page Y. When page Y is ranked, number of votes plays the main role. But that is not the only factor used for PageRank. The existing page rank of the page which made the vote is also highly considered for ranking of the page which received the vote. The integrity of Google results makes the result listing extremely useful. Although Google display their advertisements next to the search results, they do not sell placement within the search results.