randle - 3:07 pm on Jun 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

Well, I may be off base here but it sure doesn’t sound like your question is geared toward finding an algorithmic effort to bring authority sites to the top of your results; but rather to have a method to review your results after an update and grade or measure the change; relative to the presence of “authoritative” sites.

If that is the case, and your going to have people sitting there entering queries and trying to grade these results for the increase, or decrease, of these “authoritative” sites then you need a relatively quick glance grading system.

The topic is quite narrow in focus
Total absence of “click here for (consumer action)”
High Page Rank (I know all about the rise and fall of PR but it’s a quick factor to look at)
No Adsense anywhere (Sure, there could be the extreme exception, a non-profit trying to raise $)
The ratio of inbound links to outbound is extremely high; at least 95% (Just look for an absence of reciprocal linking pages)

Sure this test is full of holes, and does not “define” an authority site by any stretch but if time and manpower are factors you will get a read on your results from this.

p.s. I applaud you for coming to a forum like this and asking this type of question.