Webwhompers

PageRank™ is Google's patented algorithm "to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important." The details of the algorithm are secret, but the main ideas are well-known and much-copied.

The principles of PageRank™ are similar to those of a political election. In particular, a hyperlink from page x to page y counts as a "vote" cast by x for y. The rules of voting in this political election combine both democracy and oligarchy. The privilege of voting is open to all (democracy), but the weight of a vote depends on who cast it (oligarchy).

Famous features of PageRank™ include two ways votes are weighted:

• A vote from a high-ranked page is worth more than a vote from a low-ranked page.
• Each page can vote for any number of other pages; however, the weight of each of its individual votes decreases according to the total number of votes it has cast.

Most other parts of PageRank™ are closely guarded secrets. For example:

• Who has voted for whom? The contents of this ballot box are public, but who wants to count the votes? We rely on Google's database as a convenient substitute for verifiable vote-counting.
• Whose voting privileges have been revoked? As Web builders compete for PageRank™, some use techniques such as link-farming that Google considers to be cheating. Google works diligently and secretly to identify the cheaters and remove all their votes from the ballot box.