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Let's suppose I am Google. I am in arguably the best position in the world to build this system, because I have PageRank. PageRank is (for the sake of argumen

Let's suppose I am Google. I am in arguably the best position in the world to build this system, because I have PageRank. PageRank is (for the sake of argument) the closest thing yet invented to an unbiased measure of authoritativeness (though still not that close). I also have the most comprehensive map of the Web ever made, because that's the input to PageRank. I could imagine building a contextualization machine out of this. Oversimplified version: Look for cases where an authoritative link frequently appears next to a link to the page in need of context, and surface those authoritative links. The good news / problem is that you can already use google this way. If you google a given URL, you'll get results of people talking about it! E.g. the current top article on HN is: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/ios-14-5-offers-unlock-iphone-with-apple-watch-diverse-siri-voices-and-more/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/ios-14-5-offers-unloc... If I google this, I get a Reddit thread discussing this, two misses (MacRumors frontpage and a CNBC index page), and a Korean page. The last might be fine, but I can't read it so I don't know. Maybe the Apple announcement is just too new, but this doesn't seem super useful. Of course, maybe there are refinements one could make for this use case. Maybe this technique is just more useful for political or science topics. I don't know. I tend to doubt it, though.

ergot_vacation 6y ago
The problem of course is that a certain crowd runs most large sites, and as seen on Youtube, if things they dislike become too popular they will do whatever they can to suppress that popularity. Put another way, there are two definitions of "Authoritative": what does the raw data suggest, and what does the echo chamber I've surrounded myself with and become convinced is reality say. I think we all know which standard would be used if such a system was implemented (and of course, it's already been attempted in small ways).
anigbrowl 6y ago
I agree that Pagerank and its derivatives are enormously valuable, but a disadvantage is that the graph isn't exposed, only an ordered list of search results. Even if you leave aside the issue of this being weighted by known user preferences, it's akin to trying to understand the structure of a tree by looking at a handful of leaves.

ergot_vacation 6y ago

The problem of course is that a certain crowd runs most large sites, and as seen on Youtube, if things they dislike become too popular they will do whatever they can to suppress that popularity. Put another way, there are two definitions of "Authoritative": what does the raw data suggest, and what does the echo chamber I've surrounded myself with and become convinced is reality say. I think we all know which standard would be used if such a system was implemented (and of course, it's already been attempted in small ways).

anigbrowl 6y ago

I agree that Pagerank and its derivatives are enormously valuable, but a disadvantage is that the graph isn't exposed, only an ordered list of search results. Even if you leave aside the issue of this being weighted by known user preferences, it's akin to trying to understand the structure of a tree by looking at a handful of leaves.