TheMadScientist - 6:27 pm on Mar 24, 2011 (gmt 0)

4. Democracy on the web works.
Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including exceptions lists and other algorithmic nuances, which are necessarily implemented when our overly complicated view of the web and sites epically fails. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, because there are more sites we really like and when we find a new site we want people to visit we add it to our 'algorithmically special' lists in order to count our democratically cast vote with a significantly higher weight than those cast by the often confusing signals we try to interpret. We do this algorithmically, of course, so it is done in all fairness. In the same vein, we are active in the open reporting of paid links, where innovation takes place through the collective reporting of many so-called rule breakers.