Makaveli2007 - 2:37 am on Aug 15, 2010 (gmt 0)

"Indeed that link is highly valuable but a website with just a handful of links will still be rated lower than one that has 100s of links, regardless of their PR.

Even in our normal life, I would rather trust 100s of people saying that something is good than just one expert saying something is awesome."

Very interesting - Whenever I thought about search engine algorithms and how they evaluate links as votes, I came to the completely opposite conclusion.

I think if you make the statement you made, you're not fully aware of the bull#*$! flipper machine most people are stuck in :-). Someone says something, someone else repeats it, and in the end everybody thinks they know what's going on. I see this in the real world on a daily basis...multiple times a day...

I think there's a proverb for that "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", yet 95%+ of the people I meet on a daily basis have strong(!) opinions on subjects they dont have enough knowledge about to make an informed decision. And if you track their success record on those statements, they're wrong pretty damn often....

You might think I'm exaggerating, now, but here's an example (and I could give you many more):

If I'm a search engine trying to determine whether a site about SEO is good, would I rather trust

A) 100 sites that have nothing to do with SEO, and are not very authoritative....who say "this is great stuff"

or would I rather trust

B) someone who is an SEO (relevant) and a true recognized expert in the field (authority). For example martinibuster, when it comes to link building.

The only problem is that you'd also have to be able to evaluate if the one person could be lying to you on purpose. And that's something you can figure out by their behaviour in the past & wondering if they have any reason to lie (anything to gain from it, or would they risk their brand).

If I know someone personally and trust the person, and he has spent all of his life researching a topic and I know he's a highly intelligent guy..............Im gonna trust that person over 1,000,000 people who have never researched the field and are stupid.

:-)