kaled - 6:35 pm on Mar 9, 2004 (gmt 0)

Caveman said

Amazing how many people in here are thinking black & white when with algo's, it's better to think in thousands of shades of gray.

Yes, this should be the way search engines work. HOWEVER, if Florida taught us anything it is that Google's algos are either
a) littered with bugs
or
b) littered with discontinuities (maths students might prefer the term singularities).

Personally, I believe both feature at the moment.

If discontinuities are present in the algo (e.g. sending pages that were top 10 to oblivion) then thinking entirely in shades of gray just isn't sufficient.

I've said it before, but I still think it's worth repeating. If Google engineers believe they can maintain a search engine using algos that have discontinuities (I call them "non-linear" algos for simplicity) then they are wrong. They'll end up creating a patchwork of sticking plasters. As software engineers they may think they know it all - they don't. No control engineer would tread the path that Google seems to have taken.

Kaled.