ONLINE MARKETING, INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Online Marketing, Information Architecture, and Search Engine Optimization offers a brief introduction into the history and strategies of online and direct marketing; discussing the fundamentals of marketing, advertising, online business and ecommerce; evaluating online media, properties, audience/ circulation, and affiliations/ relationships; optimizing information architectures and document structures; and teaching how to improve search engine rankings, maximize site traffic, and attract targeted traffic.

The course will explore the general system architecture and anatomy of search engines, including crawling, indexing, and searching. Students will learn about information retrieval, search engine generations, methods and technologies; focusing on the linkpopularity and authority based PageRank® system by Google, Inc. Lessons will clarify the underlying procedures, algorithms, and implications. Students will design and optimize information architectures and documents addressing the aforementioned concerns.

The course will also cover advanced methods of code, page and architecture optimization and discuss structural, legal and ethical implications. Students will analyze several case studies, investigate and improve the information architecture, page structure, search engine ranking and traffic of several online examples and assignments. Class members will participate in several directories, Open Source projects and online communities. Students will devise and program several related applications and solutions, and prepare a final project that demonstrates the mastery of the methods and technology discussed in the class.

• CLASS INFORMATION
  
• CLASS SCHEDULE
  • Week 1 - Introduction
  • Week 2 - Searchengines
  • Week 3 - Searchengines Background
  • Week 4 - Code, Domain and Keyword Optimization
  • Week 5 - Page Optimization
  • Week 6 - Ethical and Legal Guidelines
  • Week 7 - Google Functionality and News
  • Week 8 - Google Algorithm and Technology
  • Week 9 - Google Pagerank®
  • Week 10 - Site and Pagerank® Optimization
  • Week 11 - Linkpopularity
  • Week 12 - Directories, Editors, Submissions, and Delays
  • Week 13 - Google Labs, Third Party Products, and Information
  • Week 14 - Advanced Page and Search Engine Optimization
  • Week 15 - Final Presentation

• MATERIAL
  
• REQUIREMENTS

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GOOGLE NEWS 2004

Reading.
Becht, Stefan. AEG des Web. Amazon, E-Bay & Google schicken sich an, das Web zu übernehmen. Telepolis. April 26, 2004

Spiegel. Wall Street. Google meldet Milliarden-Börsengang an. Seit Monaten schon spekulierte die Wall Street über einen Börsengang der Suchmaschine Google - jetzt sind die nötigen Unterlagen offiziell eingereicht. Das Unternehmen gewährt zugleich einen ersten Einblick in seine bisher streng geheimen Bilanzen. Spiegel. April 29, 2004

Markoff, John. Google's Sale of Its Shares Will Defy Wall St. Tradition. New York Times. April 29, 2004

Rivlin, Gary. Google Goes Public? Search for ÎRich Get Richer'. New York Times. April 25, 2004

Markoff, John. Google Flirts; Investors Wonder About Date. New York Times. April 24, 2004

Brooks, Terrence A. The nature of meaning in the age of Google. Information Research. Vol. 9 No. 3, April, 2004

Becker, David. Google caught in anti-Semitic flap. Search site Google has been drawn into a controversy during the week of Passover over a search listing that directs viewers to an anti-Semitic site when they enter the keyword ÎJew.' CNet News.com. April 7, 2004

Patalong, Frank. Google greift an. G-Mail statt E-Mail. Der Konkurrenzkampf zwischen Yahoo, MSN und Google wird immer mehr zu einem knallharten Verdrängungswettbewerb. Mit Millionenbudgets jagen sich die Internetgiganten die Kunden ab. Jetzt steigt Google mit G-Mailä in den Freemail-Markt ein. Aber Google wäre nicht Google, wenn sein Produkt nicht etwas anders aussähe. Spiegel Online. April 1, 2004

Hochman, David. In Searching We Trust.ä New York Times. March 14, 2004

Seidler, Christoph. Interview mit Urs Hölzle, Google. ÎWir suchen Problemlöser'. Der Suchmaschinen-Gigant Google wächst gegen den weltweiten Trend. Nun expandiert die Firma erstmals in großem Stil nach Europa. Google-Vizepräsident Urs Hölzle erklärt im Interview mit SPIEGEL ONLINE, warum die Firma einige Probleme hat, dafür die passenden Mitarbeiter zu finden. Spiegel Online. March 12, 2004

Wright, Alex. In search of the deep Web. The next generation of Web search engines will do more than give you a longer list of search results. They will disrupt the information economy. Salon.com. March 9, 2004

Hansell, Saul. Yahoo to Charge for Guaranteeing a Spot on Its Index. New York Times. March 2, 2004

Hansell, Saul. The Search Engine That Isn't a Verb, Yet. New York Times. February 22, 2004

GOOGLE NEWS 2003

Reading.
Olsen, Stefanie. Customers rage at Google tweak. In a rare sign of trouble for the booming search marketing business, Google is fending off complaints from angry customers who say recent changes to the company's advertising program are costing them sales. CNET News.com. November 14, 2003

Dworschak, Manfred. Sumpfhühner im Anflug. Die Suchmaschine Google, berühmt für ihre Treffsicherheit, fördert seit kurzem Unmengen von Werbemüll zu Tage. Schuld sind findige Trickser. Der Spiegel. November 3, 2003, no. 45/2003

Gross, Terry. The Founders of Google Fresh Air Online. NPR. Interview. October 14, 2003

Markoff, John and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals? New York Times. October 31, 2003

Carbaugh, Tracy. God & Google. Do you ever treat God like a search engine? Christianity Today. Campus Life. September/October 2003

Spiegel Online. Google. Crackers Liebling? Spiegel Online. July 31, 2003

Friedman, Thomas L. Is Google God? New York Times. June 29, 2003

Manjoo, Farhad. The Google backlash. The king of search rules the Web -- but now some of the natives are growing restless. Salon.com. June 25, 2003

Malone, Michael S. Inside the Soul of the Web. 24 hours watching the world look for answers at Google. Wired. May 2003, Issue 11.05

Trinkwalder, Andrea. Neue Algorithmen: Google-Turbo aus Stanfordä. Heise News. May 18, 2003

Nunberg, Geoffrey. Search Engine Society. As Google Goes, So Goes the Nation. New York Times. May 18, 2003

Rothenberg, Randall. Google: the world's foremost information provider. AdAge. April 27, 2003

Kawamato, Dawn and Stefanie Olsen. Google snaps up Applied Semantics. CNet. News.com. April 23, 2003

Orr, Andrea. Google acquires information software provider. Reuters. April 23, 2003

Dembart, Lee. Tips and tricks for Google geeks. Users fine-tune a search engine. International Herald Tribune. April 21, 2003

Markoff, John. In Searching the Web, Google Finds Riches. New York Times. April 13, 2003

Caroll, John. Declaring my love for Google. SFGate.com. April 9, 2003

Ostrom, Mary Anne. Google to provide paid listings to Amazon. The Mercury News. April 04, 2003

Shah, Agam. Amazon licenses Google technology. Customers can search Web without leaving Amazon site. Infoworld.com. April 3, 2003

Kaine, Margaret. Amazon signs search deal with Google. CNet. News.com. April 3, 2003

Kirkpatrick, David. In the Hands of Geeks, Web Advertising Actually Works. Useful ads that consumers like and are easy for businesses to manage. Fortune. March 31, 2003

Hammonds, Keith H. How Google Growsand Growsand Grows. Fast Company. Issue 69, Page 74

Glasner, Joanna. No Plans to Take Google Public. Wired. March 26, 2003

Olsen, Stephanie. Google broadens search overseas. CNet. News.com. March 19, 2003

Archibald, Timothy. How Google Growsand Growsand Grows. FastCompany. March 17, 2003

Times. Google completes search for European HQ. Times. March 12, 2003

Walker, Leslie. Relevant Ads No Illusion, Google Says. Washington Post. March 9, 2003

AP. Google expands with advertising links tied to Web content. The Mercury News. SiliconValley.com. March 5, 2003

Bowman, Lisa M. Google swings its partners into new ads. Google formally announced a new advertising program Tuesday that allows advertisers to place ads on the company's partner sites. CNet. News.com. March 4, 2003

Null, Christopher. Google: Net Hacker Tool du Jour. Wired. March 4, 2003

Mangalindan, Mylene. Google to Unveil Program to Sell Ads on Other Sites. The Wall Street Journal. March 4, 2003

Olsen, Stefanie and Margaret Kane. ÎReassurance' a key word as Google grows. CNET News.com. March 3, 2003

McCarthy, Kieren. Google in paedo censorship debacle. The Register. February 28, 2003

Kahney, Leander. Why Did Google Want Blogger? Wired. February 22, 2003

Patsuris, Penelope. The Making of a $2 Billion Brand. Forbes. February 21, 2003

Guterman, Jimmy. Bloggle. The most popular search engine buys the most popular blogging tool. Business 2.0. February 19, 2003

Harmon, Amy. Google Deal Ties Company to Weblogs. The New York Times. February 17, 2003

McIntosh, Neil. Google gets Blogger and better. The fact that the world's favourite search engine has bought one of the pioneers of the online diary is probably good news for most net users. The Guardian. February 17, 2003

Gillmor, Dan. Google buys Pyra in big boost for blogging. The Mercury News. February 16, 2003

Ives, Nat. Advertising. Marketers Shift Tactics on Web Ads. New York Times. February 11, 2003

Swidey, Neil. A Nation of Voyeurs. How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another - and raising questions about whether we should. The Boston Globe Magazine. February 2, 2003

White, Caroline. Google news performing well. DotJournalism. January 8, 2003

McHugh, Josh. Google vs. Evil. The world's biggest, best-loved search engine owes its success to supreme technology and a simple rule: Don't be evil. Now the geek icon is finding that moral compromise is just the cost of doing big business. Wired. January 2003, No. 11.01

GOOGLE NEWS 2002

Reading.
Gallagher, David F. New Economy. Sites Become Dependent on Google. New York Times. December 9, 2002

Rötzer, Florian. Gefiltertes Internet für China. Nach einer empirischen Analyse blockiert die chinesische Regierung Tausende von Websites - allerdings ist oft kaum ein System zu erkennen. Telepolis. December 4, 2002

Lee, Jennifer. From 100 countries, a Google snapshot of what's going on. Google's global reach allows it to track ideas and phenomena as they hop from country to country.ä International Herald Tribune. November 29, 2002

Grötker, Ralf. Google Studium Einfluss? Eine Forschungsaufgabe: Wie verändern Suchmaschinen wissenschaftliches Arbeiten? Telepolis. November 18, 2002

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Irrfahrten im Netz. Schweizer Unternehmen werden in Google kaum gefunden, dank der Dominanz deutscher Optimierer. Telepolis. November 8, 2002

Macrone, Michael. Google's Compromising Position. Wired. November 2002, No. 10.11

Rötzer, Florian. Die Welt ist keineswegs alles, was Google auflistet. Die weltweit mächtigste Suchmaschine Înationalisiert' ihre Ergebnisse . Telepolis. October, 25, 2002

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Indexsäuberungen bei Google. US-Optimierer zieht vor Gericht. Telepolis. October 25, 2002

Bray, Hiawatha. Google found to block French, German sites. Boston Globe. October 25, 2002

Schwartz, John. Study Tallies Sites Blocked by Google. New York Times. October 25, 2002

McCullagh, Declan. Google Excludes Controversial Sites. Google, the world's most popular search engine, has quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings. New York Times. News.com. October 24, 2002

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Vom Wettrüsten zwischen Suchmaschinen und Suchmaschinenoptimierern. Telepolis. October 19, 2002

Olsen, Stefanie. Wharton feels the Google love. Wharton School of Business is agog over Google.ä CNET News.com. October 14, 2002

Sullivan, Danny. Yahoo Renews With Google, Changes Results.ä The Search Engine Report. October 9, 2002

Hansell, Saul. All the News Google Algorithms Say Is Fit to Print. New York Times. September 24, 2002

Lettice, John. Microsoft tops Google hell search rankings. The Register. September 18, 2002

Richardson, Tim. Google China crisis over. The Register. September 12, 2002

ComputerWire. AltaVista and Google to fight Chinese censorship. The Register. September 11, 2002

Richardson, Tim. China blocks Google. Allegedly. The Register. September 2, 2002

Manjoo, Farhad. Meet Mr. Anti-Google. A crusading webmaster says the popular search engine's page-ranking algorithm is Îundemocratic.' Salon.com. August 29, 2002

Paul, Eckhard. Google: Sippenhaft für DSL-Nutzer. Heise Newsticker. July 27, 2002

Lee, Jennifer. Net Users Try to Elude the Google Grasp. New York Times. July 25, 2002

Schröder, Burkhard. Google filtert. Zensur bei Suchmaschinen und jugendschutz.net. Telepolis. July 22, 2002

Cullen, Drew. Indymedia.nl loses anarchist hyperlinks case. The Register. July 2, 2002

Gallagher, David F. Technology; AOL Shifts Key Contract To Google.ä New York Times. May 2, 2002

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Deutsche Bahn setzt sich bei Suchmaschinen-Betreiber durch. Telepolis. April 22, 2002

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Deutsche Bahn mahnt Suchmaschinen wegen ÎRadikal' ab. Bürgerrechtler: Regeln für das Internet strenger als in der Offline-Welt. Telepolis. April 17, 2002

Palm, Goedart. Die Welt ist fast alles, was Google ist. Zur Macht der Suchmaschinen. Telepolis. March 28, 2002

McCullagh, Declan. Google Yanks Anti-Church Sites. Wired. March 21, 2002

Doctorow, Cory. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Panopticon.ä The O'Reilly Network. March 8, 2002

Spring, Tom. Three Minutes With Google's Eric Schmidt. Google boss discusses the company's future and mastering the art of the Internet search. PCWorld.com. January 30, 2002

GOOGLE NEWS 2001

Marino, Vivian. Searching the Web, Searching the Mind. New York Times. December 23, 2001

Markovich, Matt. Taken Over by Porn. Porn Purveyors Grab Expiring Web Sites From Previous Owners. ABCNews. December 17, 2001

Greene, Thomas C. The Google attack engine. The Register. November 28, 2001

Bayers, Chip. I'm Feeling Lucky. Google's built a no-nonsense path to profitability by treating advertising just like search. The secret? Three words, ranked by relevance: Results. Results. Results. Wired. October 2001, No. 9.10

Mieszkowski, Katharine. Google à go-go. While other search engines sputter and fail, Monika Henzinger, Google's director of research, has an answer to every query. Salon.com. June 21, 2001

Boutin, Paul. Usenet. alt.recovery. Wired. May 2001, No. 9.05

Schulzki-Haddouti, Christiane. Mit Google durchs WWW. Was die immer populärer werdende Suchmaschine vom Rest der Welt unterscheidet. Telepolis. February 27, 2001

Liscka, Konrad. Nach der Digitalen Stadt nun auch Deja News.Google hat das beinahe bankrotte Usenet-Archiv gekauft. Viele Nutzer sind erstaunt: Müssen Unternehmen tatsächlich Gewinne machen? Telepolis. February 15, 2001

GOOGLE NEWS 2000

Wagner, Mitch. Google Bets The Farm On Linux. Cost, support benefits of open-source OS drive massive server expansion. Internet Week. June 1, 2000

Durham, Mark. Google: We're down with ODP. Will the streamlined search engine's decision to mix in the 20,000 editors of the Open Directory Project mess with its mojo? Salon.com. March 24, 2000, Available:

GOOGLE NEWS 1999

Jaffe, Sam. Google Can End Your Search for a Great Search Site. BusinessWeek Online. December 28, 1999

Wang, Andy. UK Shopping Guide Turns To Google. E-Commerce Times. November 29, 1999

Feuerstein, Adam. At last, a search engine that (gasp!) just searches. Net Business. October 8, 1999

Lea, Graham. Microsoft's Satanic Majesty requests. The Register. October 7, 1999

Wang, Andy. Google Keeps Search Simple. New York Times. October 6, 1999

The Industry Standard. Tools for Thinking. The richness of research comes from the things you didn't know you were looking for. The Industry Standard. October 4, 1999

Malik, Om. How google is that? Forbes.com. October 4, 1999

Lewis, Peter H. State of The Art. Searches Where Less, Not More, Is Better. New York Times. September 30, 1999

Gross, Neil. Can Google's Prodigies Make a Search Tool Pay? Sergey Brin and Larry Page insist that their math wizardry and magical search results can compete with the entertainment-heavy portals.ä Business Week. September 29, 1999

Brown, Janelle. From beta to bona fide. Google, a favorite search engine of the plugged-in crowd, uses its $25 million in venture funding to launch a site almost unchanged from the testä version. Salon Magazine. September 23, 1999

Boulton, Clint. Google Finishes GoogleScout, Launches Site. InternetNews.com. September 21, 1999

Rosenberg, Scott. Boom or bubble? Net honchos don't know whether it's the best or the worst of times - but they're hiring and Îmonetizing' too fast to worry. Salon Magazine. July 23, 1999

Maclachlan, Malcolm. Netscape Search Engine Too Late, Analysts Say. TechWeb News. June 25, 1999

Maclachlan, Malcolm. Netscape Launches Search Engine. TechWeb News. June 24, 1999

MSNBC. Can Google's search engine find profits? MSNBC. ZDNet. June 13, 1999

GOOGLE NEWS 1998

Rosenberg, Scott. Yes, there is a better search engine. While the portal sites fiddle, Google catches fire. Salon Magazine. December 21, 1998

Berst, Jesse. Smarter Searches: Why Search Engines Are *Again* the Web's Next Big Thing. ZDNet. December 23, 1998

GOOGLE DOMAIN

Resource.
National Arbitration Forum. Decision. Google Inc. v. Comunicus Lda. June 19, 2002, Claim No.: FA0204000110785

GOOGLE CENSORSHIP

Reading.
Bray, Hiawatha. Google found to block French, German sites. Boston Globe. October 25, 2002

Schwartz, John. Study Tallies Sites Blocked by Google. New York Times. October 25, 2002

McCullagh, Declan. Google Excludes Controversial Sites. Google, the world's most popular search engine, has quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings. New York Times. News.com. October 24, 2002

GOOGLE CENSORSHIP CHINA

Resource.
Knight, Will. Google keywords knock Chinese surfers offline. NewScientist.com. September 13 2002 [Accessed at: September 13, 2002]

Knight, Will. On-off access for Google in China. NewScientist.com. September 13, 2002

Kahn, Joseph. China Seems to Refine Bid to Restrict Web Access. New York Times. September 13 2002 [Accessed at: September 13, 2002]

AP. Google searching again in China. CNN. September 12, 2002

Richardson, Tim. Google China crisis over. The Register. September 12, 2002

Kahn, Joseph. China Toughens Obstacles to Internet Searches. New York Times. September 11 2002 [Accessed at: September 13, 2002]

New York Times. Beijing Blocks Access to Google. New York Times. September 4, 2002

Hermida, Alfred. Behind China's internet Red Firewall. BBC News. September 3, 2002

BBC News. Google fights Chinese ban. BBC News. September 3, 2002

Richardson, Tim. China blocks Google. Allegedly. The Register. September 2, 2002

BBC News. China blocking Google. BBC News. September 2, 2002

Richardson, Tim. China blocks Google. Allegedly. The Register. September 2, 2002

Friess, Steve. China Re-Blocks News Sites. Wired. September 26, 2001

Friess, Steve. China Quietly Unblocks U.S. Sites. Wired. September 21, 2001

Resource.
Page, Lawrence, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd. The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web. Stanford University. November 11, 1999

Abstract. The importance of a Web page is an inherently subjective matter, which depends on the readers interests, knowledge and attitudes. But there is still much that can be said objectively about the relative importance of Web pages. This paper describes PageRank, a mathod for rating Web pages objectively and mechanically, effectively measuring the human interest and attention devoted to them. We compare PageRank to an idealized random Web surfer. We show how to efficiently compute PageRank for large numbers of pages. And, we show how to apply PageRank to search and to user navigation.

Resource.
Brin, Sergey and Lawrence Page. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. Seventh International World Wide Web Conference. April 14 ö 18, 1998

Abstract. In this paper, we present Google, a prototype of a large-scale search engine which makes heavy use of the structure present in hypertext. Google is designed to crawl and index the Web efficiently and produce much more satisfying search results than existing systems. The prototype with a full text and hyperlink database of at least 24 million pages is available at http://google.stanford.edu/ To engineer a search engine is a challenging task. Search engines index tens to hundreds of millions of web pages involving a comparable number of distinct terms. They answer tens of millions of queries every day. Despite the importance of large-scale search engines on the web, very little academic research has been done on them. Furthermore, due to rapid advance in technology and web proliferation, creating a web search engine today is very different from three years ago. This paper provides an in-depth description of our large-scale web search engine -- the first such detailed public description we know of to date. Apart from the problems of scaling traditional search techniques to data of this magnitude, there are new technical challenges involved with using the additional information present in hypertext to produce better search results. This paper addresses this question of how to build a practical large-scale system which can exploit the additional information present in hypertext. Also we look at the problem of how to effectively deal with uncontrolled hypertext collections where anyone can publish anything they want.

Resource.Page, Lawrence, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani, and Terry Winograd. The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web. Stanford University. Manuscript. 1998.

Page, Larry. PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web. Stanford University. Slide Presentation. September 15, 1997

GOOGLE PATENTS

Resource.
Dean, Jeffrey A., Georges R. Harik, and Paul Buchheit. Methods and apparatus for serving relevant advertisements. United States Patent Application No.: 20040059708. March 25, 2004

Abstract. The relevance of advertisements to a user's interests is improved. In one implementation, the content of a web page is analyzed to determine a list of one or more topics associated with that web page. An advertisement is considered to be relevant to that web page if it is associated with keywords belonging to the list of one or more topics. One or more of these relevant advertisements may be provided for rendering in conjunction with the web page or related web pages.

Resource.
Dean, Jeffrey A., Georges R. Harik, and Paul Buchheit. Serving advertisements using information associated with e-mail. United States Patent Application No.: 20040059712. March 25, 2004

Abstract. Advertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on e-mails. The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining information of an e-mail that includes available spots for ads, (ii) determining one or more ads relevant to the e-mail information, and/or (iii) providing the one or more ads for rendering in association with the e-mail.

Resource.
Bharat, Krishna. Ranking search results by reranking the results based on local inter-connectivity. Google. Inc. United States Patent No.: 6,526,440. February 25, 2003, Appl. No.: 771677, Filed: January 30, 2001

Abstract. A search engine for searching a corpus improves the relevancy of the results by refining a standard relevancy score based on the interconnectivity of the initially returned set of documents. The search engine obtains an initial set of relevant documents by matching a user's search terms to an index of a corpus. A re-ranking component in the search engine then refines the initially returned document rankings so that documents that are frequently cited in the initial set of relevant documents are preferred over documents that are less frequently cited within the initial set.

Resource.
Smith, Benjamin Thomas at al. Methods and apparatus for providing search results in response to an ambiguous search query. Google. Inc. United States Patent Application No.: 20020133481. September 19, 2002

Abstract. Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention allow a user to submit an ambiguous search query and to receive relevant search results. In one embodiment, a sequence of numbers received from a user of a standard telephone keypad is translated into a set of potentially corresponding alphanumeric sequences. These potentially corresponding alphanumeric sequences are provided as an input to a conventional search engine, using a boolean ORä expression, and the search results are presented to the user. The search engine effectively limits search results to those in which the user was likely interested.

Resource.
Dean, Jeffrey A. Methods and apparatus for employing usage statistics in document retrieval. Google. Inc. United States Patent Application No.: 2002012398. September 5, 2002

Abstract. Methods and apparatus consistent with the invention provide improved organization of documents responsive to a search query. In one embodiment, a search query is received and a list of responsive documents is identified. The responsive documents are organized based in whole or in part on usage statistics.

Resource.
Smith, Benjamin Thomas. Methods and apparatus for using a modified index to provide search results in response to an ambiguous search query. Google. Inc. United States Patent Application No.: 20020042791. April 11, 2002

Abstract. A system allows a user to submit an ambiguous search query and to receive potentially disambiguated search results. In one implementation, a search engine's conventional alphanumeric index is translated into a second index that is ambiguated in the same manner as which the user's input is ambiguated. The user's ambiguous search query is compared to this ambiguated index, and the corresponding documents are provided to the user as search results.

GOOGLE RELATED PUBLICATIONS AND DOCUMENTS

Resource.
Google. Our Search: Google Technology.

Reading.
WebmasterWorld. Google Knowledgebase V2.

Resource.
Melnik, Sergey, Sriram Raghavan, Beverly Yang, and Hector Garcia-Molina. Building a Distributed Full-Text Index for the Web. ACM Transactions on Information Systems. July 2001, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp 217-241
or 10th World Wide Web Conference. July 2000, Published May 1-5, 2001, Hong Kong
http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/2000-29 or
http://www-db.stanford.edu/~rsram/pubs/www10/www10paper.pdf

Resource.
Gyongyi, Zoltan, Hector Garcia-Molina and Jan Pedersen. Combating Web Spam with TrustRank. Stanford University. Technical Report. March 11, 2004

Abstract: Abstract Web spam pages use various techniques to achieve higher-than-deserved rankings in a search engine's results. While human experts can identify spam, it is too expensive to manually evaluate a large number of pages. Instead, we propose techniques to semi-automatically separate reputable, good pages from spam. We first select a small set of seed pages to be evaluated by an expert. Once we manually identify the reputable seed pages, we use the link structure of the web to discover other pages that are likely to be good. In this paper we discuss possible ways to implement the seed selection and the discovery of good pages. We present results of experiments run on the World Wide Web indexed by AltaVista and evaluate the performance of our techniques. Our results show that we can effectively filter out spam from a significant fraction of the web, based on a good seed set of less than 200 sites.

Resource.
Langville, Amy N. and Carl D. Meyer. Deeper Inside PageRank. North Carolina State University. March 7, 2004

Abstract. This paper serves as a companion or extension to the Inside PageRankä paper by Bianchini et al It is a comprehensive survey of all issues associated with PageRank, covering the basic PageRank model, available and recommended solution methods, storage issues, existence, uniqueness, and convergence properties, possible alterations to the basic model, suggested alternatives to the traditional solution methods, sensitivity and conditioning, and finally the updating problem. We introduce a few new results, provide an extensive reference list, and speculate about exciting areas of future research.

Resource.
Ghemawat, Sanjay, Howard Gobioff, and Shun-Tak Leung. The Google File System. Google. 19th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. October 19-22, 2003

Resource.
Kamvar, Sepandar, Taher Haveliwala, and Gene Golub. Adaptive Methods for the Computation of PageRank. Stanford University. April 28, 2003

Abstract. We observe that the convergence patterns of pages in the PageRank algorithm have a nonuniform distribution. Specifically, many pages converge to their true PageRank quickly, while relatively few pages take a much longer time to converge. Furthermore, we observe that these slow-converging pages are generally those pages with high PageRank. We use this observation to devise a simple algorithm to speed up the computation of PageRank, in which the PageRank of pages that have converged are not recomputed at each iteration after convergence. This algorithm, which we call Adaptive PageRank, speeds up the computation of PageRank by nearly 30%.

Resource.
Haveliwala, Taher and Sepandar Kamvar. The Second Eigenvalue of the Google Matrix. Stanford University. March 11, 2003

Abstract. We determine analytically the modulus of the second eigenvalue for the web hyperlink matrix used by Google for computing PageRank. Specifically, we prove the following statement: ``For any matrix $A=[cP + (1-c)E]^T$, where $P$ is an $n \times n$ row-stochastic matrix, $E$ is a strictly positive $n \times n$ rank-one row-stochastic matrix, and $0 \leq c \leq 1$, the second eigenvalue of $A$ has modulus $|\lambda_2| \leq c$. Furthermore, if $P$ has at least two irreducible closed subsets, the second eigenvalue $\lambda_2 = c$.'' This statement has implications for the convergence rate of the standard PageRank algorithm as the web scales, for the stability of PageRank to perturbations to the link structure of the web, for the detection of Google spammers, and for the design of algorithms to speed up PageRank.

Resource.
Kamvar, Sepandar, Taher Haveliwala, Chris Manning and Gene Golub. Exploiting the Block Structure of the Web for Computing PageRank.Stanford University. March 4, 2003

Abstract. The web link graph has a nested block structure: the vast majority of hyperlinks link pages on a host to other pages on the same host, and many of those that do not link pages within the same domain. We show how to exploit this structure to speed up the computation of PageRank by a 3-stage algorithm whereby (1)~the local PageRanks of pages for each host are computed independently using the link structure of that host, (2)~these local PageRanks are then weighted by the ``importance'' of the corresponding host, and (3)~the standard PageRank algorithm is then run using as its starting vector the weighted aggregate of the local PageRanks. Empirically, this algorithm speeds up the computation of PageRank by a factor of 2 in realistic scenarios. Further, we develop a variant of this algorithm that efficiently computes many different ``personalized'' PageRanks, and a variant that efficiently recomputes PageRank after node updates.

Resource.
Kamvar, Sepandar, Taher Haveliwala, Chris Manning and Gene Golub. Extrapolation Methods for Accelerating PageRank Computations. Proceedings of the Twelfth International World Wide Web Conference. Standford University. February 28, 2003

Abstract. We present a novel algorithm for the fast computation of PageRank, a hyperlink-based estimate of the importanceä of Web pages. The original PageRank algorithm uses the Power Method to compute successive iterates that converge to the principal eigenvector of the Markov matrix representing the Web link graph. The algorithm presented here, called Quadratic Extrapolation, accelerates the convergence of the Power Method by periodically subtracting off estimates of the nonprincipal eigenvectors from the current iterate of the Power Method. In Quadratic Extrapolation, we take advantage of the fact that the first eigenvalue of a Markov matrix is known to be 1 to compute the nonprincipal eigenvectors using successive iterates of the Power Method. Empirically, we show that using Quadratic Extrapolation speeds up PageRank computation by 25--300\% on a Web graph of 80 million nodes, with minimal overhead. Our contribution is useful to the PageRank community and the numerical linear algebra community in general, as it is a fast method for determining the dominant eigenvector of a matrix that is too large for standard fast methods to be practical.

Remark. Further documents discussing Search Engine Technologies, PageRank®, Natural Language Processing etc. can be found at the Stanford Database Group Publication Server at:
http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub?cmd=search&ORGANIZATION=stanford.cs.infolab.nlp

Question.
What is PageRank®ä and why is it important?
What is the Google® Toolbar?
How significant are Inbound Links?
What are and what is the importance of back links.
What is an Outbound Link?
What means Deep Linking?
Describe the implications of Cross Linking.
Explain the term Reciprocal Link.
What does the term PR0 mean for a domain or web page?
What are the effects of Dead Links?

Resource.
Google Toolbar. Free Toolbar. Internet Explorer Only.
Anatomy of a Large Hypertext Search Engine
Page, Larry. PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web.
The Google Page Ranking Algorithm ·
Google's PageRank.
PageRank Uncovered 3.0.
Google. Pigeonrank. (Parody)
Top 10 Ways to increase your PageRank Irony.
Pages with the highest Google PageRank.
Google Toolbar. Free Toolbar. Internet Explorer Only.

Google Dance and PagerankTHEORIES (doesn't work as theory ö must be improved)

1) Google is trying to re-do Pagerank - and to do that - some top sites are being brought down to 0, so no pagerank is passed on.
2) That when the next Link count / spider / crawl occurs - the old link exchanges with enough other PR applied to them - should show back up again. (A guess on my part)
3) Based on that your high PR sites will be recalcualted to a new PR - probably less than before.
4) Your dropped cache pages will then be re-spidered and indexed.

GOOGLE, GOSSIP, PR-OSTITUTION

Searchking vs. Google.

Resource.
Search King, Inc. vs. Google Technology, Inc. Google Technology, Inc.'s Response and Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction. United States District Court For the Western District of Oklahoma. December 30, 2002, Case No. CIV-02-1457M

Lithwick, Dahlia. Google-Opoly: The Game No One but Google Can Play. The strange Google lawsuit over its page-ranking monopoly. Slate. January 29, 2003

Grimmelmann, James. Google replies to SearchKing lawsuit. LawMeme. January 09, 2003

Miller, Ernest. The Power of Google. LawMeme. December 9, 2002

Massa, Bob. Searchking Doesn't Budge in Lawsuit Against Google. SearchKing. Press Releases and Archive.

PR Shopping

Resource.
Text Link Brokers.

Remark. The growing importance and relevance of the PageRank® algorithm and value might even be reflected in the social sphere and lead, as discussed in one popular bulletin board, to the invention of a new pickup line: What is your PR?ä

GOOGLE BOMB

Reading.
Mathes, Adam. Filler Friday: Google Bombing. Uber.Nu. April 6, 2001
Orlowski, Andrew. Google to fix blog noise problem. The Register. May 9, 2003
Mariano, Gwendolyn. Google protects its search results. CNet. News.com. April 16, 2002
Wood, Molly. Declare peace on Google, goodwill toward searchers. CNet. News.com. March 29, 2002
Hiler, John. Google Time Bomb. Will Weblogs ruin Google's search engine? Slate. March 25, 2002
Sullivan, Danny. Google Bombs Aren't So Scary. SearchEngineWorld. March 18, 2002
BBC News. Google hit by link bombers. BBC News. March 13, 2002
Hiler, John. Google Time Bomb. Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine? Microcontent News. March 3, 2002

Resource.
Sullivan, Danny. More Evil Than Dr. Evil? SearchEngineWorld. November 1, 1999
McCarthy, Kieren. Web community puts price on head of super highwayman VeriSign. The Register. May 14, 2002

Case Study.
Thunderbird University Cloaking. Please analyze the search engine results for the following keywords: Korean Graduate Schoolä, Brazil Graduate Schoolä, USA Businessä, Japanese Business Protocolä, and French Business Schoolä. Which other keywords are targeted? Which methods and strategies are used by the Thunderbird University/ American Graduate School and its MBA program? Would such methods be described as ethical within the realm of Search engine optimization? How would the individual user perceive such attempts: advertising, promoting, marketing, manipulating, cheating, or spamming? Who is the owner of several of the domains and pages and what is the profession of this company? (Example: http://www.thunderbird-mba.com/korean_graduate_school.htm. Please compare the cached version of the page in Google or lookup the page in the Internet Archive.) What are the risks of such activities and what are the possible implications for the user, the search engine, and the cloaker itself?

Remark. The case Thunderbird University/ Korean Business School has been discussed at Webmasterworld at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/4342.htm

CASE STUDY FRENCH MILITARY VICTORIES

Case Study.
French Military Victories and French Military Defeats

CASE STUDY - JEW

Flynn, Laurie J. Google Says It Doesn't Plan to Change Search Results. New York Times. April 13, 2004

Resource.
Jew Watch.
Archive of essays, articles and online books about a perceived international Jewish conspiracy. (DMOZ Description) Registered by Internet Education, 6936 Bruno, St. Louis, MO 63139, US

Resource.
Google. An explanation of our search results.

Seth Finkelstein. Wall Street Journal on Google and JewWatch.com. Infothought Blog April 15, 2004

Cleveland Jewish News. Online petition seeks removal of antisemitic site from Google. Cleveland Jewish News. April 1, 2004

Steven Weinstock. Remove Jew Watch.

Jew Watch Dot Org. Registered by Brian Hamilton.

Jew Watch Dot Net. Registered by Cybersquatters Against Hate. 36 S 9th Street Suite 406. Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402, US.

Petition. Remove JewWatch.com from the Google Search Engine!

Stormfront. Google removes JewWatch / Wikipedia open source. Stormfront. Bulletin Board. April 24, 2004

MISERABLE FAILURE

Miserable Failure

Matt Wright Formail/Guestbook

Question.
Describe the term Search Engine Algorithm and provide one brief example.
What is the Google Dance?
Which roles play www, www2, and www3 in search engine optimization?
What is the DeepBot?
What is a Freshbot?
What are Fresh Tags?
What means Everflux?
Please describe the idea of Link Popularity.
What is a Link Farm?

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