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I have a solution for the google problem, but don't have time to pursue this myself. So anyone interested, steal my idea! (Or bash it in the replies, it's HN af

I have a solution for the google problem, but don't have time to pursue this myself. So anyone interested, steal my idea! (Or bash it in the replies, it's HN after all :D) Instead of pagerank we need peoplerank. Let's say we build a new elgooG search engine that you can customize by indicating which people you trust. For example I say to trust Paul Graham about the topics entrepreneur and startup. Then, authors like Paul can register a key on elgooG and sign their online articles with that key. When I search topics related to startups, elgooG knows I trust Paul and will try to find articles from him or anyone that he trusts, or even 3rd grade connections. It is very difficult to fool such a search engine with SEO optimization, since the user actually indicates which people to trust. I'm pretyy confident it would be a good solution, but I'm afraid it's very hard to start up. If you steal my idea, please consider giving me a 1% stake (or less) in your company ;D.

friendzis 5y ago
This algorithm would have an extremely bad discoverability an would be extremely susceptible to platformization. How would you find Melcher writing about car engine maintenance on Bent Piston forum when you yourself rank KingsEgg on Vroom forums as the authority on engine maintenance? Which article do rank higher: one by Melcher that is highly ranked by large number of "random" individuals or the one recommended by KingsEgg?
- bluebit 5y ago
  And boom, we're back to the original problem Google had - how to initially seed authority sites.
avnigo 5y ago
I sort of like where the idea is going, but I don't like that it just depends on trust. People would become search engine "influencers" that you follow, and would get paid to bless certain articles, as along as they exude an air of trustworthiness. So in a sense, instead of Google being the ad server, the people you follow are. Maybe a combination of trust and reputation would work better, but you might still get groups of people vouching for each other's recommendations. I guess it's not an easy problem.

friendzis 5y ago

This algorithm would have an extremely bad discoverability an would be extremely susceptible to platformization. How would you find Melcher writing about car engine maintenance on Bent Piston forum when you yourself rank KingsEgg on Vroom forums as the authority on engine maintenance? Which article do rank higher: one by Melcher that is highly ranked by large number of "random" individuals or the one recommended by KingsEgg?

bluebit 5y ago
And boom, we're back to the original problem Google had - how to initially seed authority sites.

avnigo 5y ago

I sort of like where the idea is going, but I don't like that it just depends on trust. People would become search engine "influencers" that you follow, and would get paid to bless certain articles, as along as they exude an air of trustworthiness. So in a sense, instead of Google being the ad server, the people you follow are. Maybe a combination of trust and reputation would work better, but you might still get groups of people vouching for each other's recommendations. I guess it's not an easy problem.