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Housecats weren't designed, they were evolved. That's a big difference. There can be cleanliness and simplicity in design. Also, a housecat's goal is to live a
by palish 18y ago
Housecats weren't designed, they were evolved. That's a big difference. There can be cleanliness and simplicity in design. Also, a housecat's goal is to live and to reproduce, which involves solving many problems, whereas the ranking algorithm's goal is to match text to relevant pages, which requires solving far fewer problems than a living creature, so it's really not a fair metaphor.
- anamax 18y ago> Housecats weren't designed, they were evolved. That's a big difference. What properties of a design do you think are determined by the design process as opposed to its outcome? > whereas the ranking algorithm's goal is to match text to relevant pages, which requires solving far fewer problems than a living creature While "relevance" is the commonly used term, "utility" or "value" would be more accurate. And they're far more complicated than you seem to think. There is no "best" search result for a given query. There's not even a best result for a given person. Add in their context, and you're getting close, but there are still other factors that are relevant to determining "best".
- bd 18y agoI suspect a large part of ranking algorithm's complexity comes also from evolution - they need to coevolve with all SEO stuff. Optimal ranking is a moving target, parasites break your fitness.