Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 234 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press July 3, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691122024
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691122021
• Book Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.5 pounds

Ian D. Gordon, Library Journal
"They successfully introduce such web-searching principles as crawling, linking, and indexing together with basic algebraic ideas".

Product Review
Jonathan Bowen Times Higher Education Supplement : This is a worthwhile book. It offers a comprehensive and erudite presentation of PageRank and related search-engine algorithms, and it is written in an approachable way, given the mathematical foundations involved.


Ed Gerstner Nature Physics : If I were taking, or teaching, a course in linear algebra today, this book would be a godsend.


Ian D. Gordon Library Journal : Amy N. Langville and Carl D. Meyer examine the logic, mathematics, and sophistication behind Google's PageRank and other Internet search engine ranking programs. . . . It is an great work.


Bill Satzer MathDL.maa.org : Google's PageRank and Beyond describes the link analysis tool called PageRank, puts it in the context of web search engines and information retrieval, and describes competing methods for ranking webpages. It is an utterly engaging book.


Michael W. Berry SIAM Review : This book should be at the top of anyone's list as a must-read for those interested in how search engines work and, more specifically how Google is to meet the requirements of so many people in so many ways.


James Hendler Physics Today : Langville and Meyer present the mathematics in all its detail. . . . But they vary the math with discussions of the many issues involved in building search engines, the 'wars' between search engine developers and those trying to artificially inflate the position of their pages, and the future of search-engine development. . . . Google's PageRank and Beyond makes good reading for anyone, student or professional, who wants to understand the details of search engines.


Jiu Ding Mathemathical Reviews : This book is written for people who are curious about new science and technology as well as for those with more advanced background in matrix theory. Much of the book can be easily followed by general readers, while understanding the remaining part requires only a good first course in linear algebra. It can be a reference book for people who want to know more about the ideas behind the currently popular search engines, and it provides an introductory text for beginning researchers in the area of information retrieval.


Constantin Popa Zentralblatt MATH : The book is very attractively and clearly written. The authors succeed to manage in an optimal way the presentation of both basic and more sophisticated concepts involved in the analysis of Google's PageRank, such that the book serves both audiences: the general and the technical scientific public.


Stephen H. Wildstrom BusinessWeek : for anyone who wants to delve deeply into just how Google's PageRank works, I recommend Google's PageRank and Beyond.


Reader Reviews
Langville and Meyer have done a superb job describing both Google's technical foundations, and the broader subject of how search engines rank pages. Over half the book is devoted to explaining the maths and rationales behind PageRank. The level of maths is understandable to those who have done some university level courses on linear algebra (i.e. matrices). The book also has considerable value in analysing what other organisations (like search engines) and researchers have cobbled together. It gives a useful summation of the state of the research, circa 2006. Essentially, everyone seems to focus on link analysis, after Google revolutionised the industry in 1998 by using this. It blew away the previous leader, AltaVista. It is true, as the authors point out, that most of the material here has already been published. But as discrete events, scattered through various scientific journals and websites. You can certainly get explanations of PageRank on several websites. But the mathematical depth and reliability of those discussions can vary with the site. The book is far handier. It is a good starting point, if you are interesting in devising your own search methods. Comment | | (Report this)