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Posted by: Zvetiki

Researchers at TU Graz have issued a report on the power of Google, which I have not seen mentioned here; ignore this message if it already had been discussed.

This report investigates the power that Google has over current information reception today. We all know that what does not exist in Google is hardly visible to the world; and obviously, the ordering of search results has a big influence on what kind of information the interested searcher gets to see.

Of particular interest to the readers of this board may be the section, "Empirical Evidence of the Google-Wikipedia Connection", investigating the position of Wikipedia entries in search results on Google and other search engines.

The full report is available http://www.iicm.tugraz.at/iicm_papers/dangers_google.pdf.

Posted by: WhispersOfWisdom

and...without Google? Where would Jimmy be? Therefore, he must draft a plan to merge with them, but wait! He has a foundation and is not a corporate structure! I guess that must change...right? Yep!

The deal is this: Google is doing their own thing and MySpace is doing it with them and so is Facebook. Now Microsoft is getting in their...Jimmy better get to it....soon.

Posted by: thekohser

Sorry, I just can't tolerate scholarly research written in "English" like this:

If anybody is concerned about "beating" Wikipedia in Google search, then they need to examine why Centiare (~30,000 pages) is able to beat Wikipedia (2,100,000+ pages) on some unusual searches.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS231US231&q=%22liz+cohen%22+performance+artist

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS231US231&q=flauxbam

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS231US231&q=stone+crab+scientific+video

In each Google search, a Wikipedia page is returned and a Centiare page is returned, but the Centiare page is higher in the search results. How is that possible?

Greg

Posted by: Moulton

Google uses a Page-Rank Algorithm (perhaps since modified) that Larry Page and Sergey Brin originally developed at Stanford.

Like all ranking functions, it's susceptible to gaming.

The impossibility of constructing a flawless ranking function is a well-known result first proven by Kenneth Arrow (also of Stanford).

Arrow won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work.

No governmental regulation can overcome the mathematical impossibility of constructing a flawless ranking function.

Posted by: Emperor

Encyc.org has the most Google juice on:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wikipedia+disgraceful nevermind, it changed still have "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22wikipedia+disgraceful+edits%22" though.

and

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22reasons+not+to+contribute+to+wikipedia%22&btnG=Search

and just gets edged out by Wikipedia Review on:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22reasons+why+wikipedia+is+a+gigantic+threat+to+civilization%22

Posted by: Jonny Cache

Re: «anti-Trust suite»

I knew a couple who stayed in an Anti-Trust Suite in a Puerto Vallarta Resort one time.

It took them years to get all the videos off the Internet.

[Name Redacted]

Posted by: Somey

I'm not really a member here, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

If only more German academics associated with the Erzherzog Johann University would allow people like me and Greg Kohs to proofread the English versions of their PDF files in advance, so many misunderstandings could be avoided. (And if they paid us, that would be even better! )

There are lengthy sections about plagiarism in there too, and some stuff about data-mining and privacy. Obviously I haven't read the whole thing (187 pages), nor do I expect to manage that any time soon, but it looks like they're proposing the creation of a number of "specilized" European search engines to Fight the Power, so to speak. Presumably these search engines would not have WP-biased ranking algorithms...?

Posted by: thekohser

No fair using quotation marks, Emperor.

Greg