Microsoft dreams up a new kind of search with BrowseRank

Anthony Ha | July 25th, 2008

A group of Microsoft researchers just presented a paper about a concept called BrowseRank that could really shake up the search landscape.

As the name implies, BrowseRank is Microsoft’s new take on Google’s PageRank algorithm — namely, the method Google uses to rank pages in its search results, based primarily on links. Obviously, Google’s approach is pretty darn effective, and must be grappled with by any company hoping to make money on the Web. But there are flaws, says a team of Microsoft researchers based in China. For one thing, it’s so easy to make a link that sites try to trick Google by creating things like link farms to boost their ranking. For another, links don’t tell you how long a user looked at a page, or how valuable the page was to them.

That’s where BrowseRank comes in. Instead of using PageRank’s “link graph,” the new ranking system would use a “user browsing graph.” By visiting a page and spending a lot of time on it, users would be implicitly “voting” for the pages that deserved to be ranked more highly.

It’s a compelling idea, albeit a scary one, since it would upend the way companies get attention online. (A Google spokesperson told CNET that PageRank is only one of more than 200 “signals” used to determine a site’s rank.) Microsoft is also trying to improve its MSN Search service in other ways, most notably with the recent acquisition of semantic search company Powerset. If Microsoft can actually make good on some of the promise behind these deals and ideas, it might be able to reverse MSN Search’s slide towards irrelevance. In the long-term, I certainly think that improving its technology is a much better strategy than offering to pay people to use its search engine.

Of course, there’s a huge gap between an academic paper and an actual product. But hey, that’s how Google started.

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  1. July 25th, 2008
    2:32 pm

    BrowseRank - Microsoft’s Answer to PageRank | Scott Fish said:

    [...] Can BrowseRank best PageRank? Microsoft tries to one-up Google PageRank Microsoft dreams up a new kind of search with BrowseRank [...]

  2. July 25th, 2008
    2:48 pm

    AMD Talk » Microsoft dreams up a new kind of search with BrowseRank said:

    [...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAs the name implies, BrowseRank is Microsoft’s new take on Google’s PageRank algorithm — namely, the method Google uses to rank pages in its search results, based primarily on links. Obviously, Google’s approach is pretty darn effective … [...]

  3. July 25th, 2008
    7:57 pm

    Pregnant Man » Microsoft dreams up a new kind of search with BrowseRank said:

    [...] Eric Savitz wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAs the name implies, BrowseRank is Microsoft’s new take on Google’s PageRank algorithm — namely, the method Google uses to rank pages in its search results, based primarily on links. Obviously, Google’s approach is pretty darn effective … [...]

  4. July 26th, 2008
    11:09 pm

    微软设想新的搜索技术 - BrowseRank at Gxie's Blog said:

    [...] 本文国际来源：http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/25/microsoft-dreams-up-a-new-kind-of-search-with-browserank/ 中文翻译：COMSHARP CMS新闻来源:VentureBeat 整个 Yo2 上的相关文章:捆绑PC能力阻微软搜索吗？ 知名色情网站怒诉微软，一把辛酸泪 由iPod的习惯性死亡说开去 微软今日推出新版Windows Live搜索 （2007-10-27）ONE WORLD ONE WORD printYo2FavControl(”",”",”微软设想新的搜索技术 - BrowseRank”,”微软的一个研究组最近发表了一篇论文，论述了一种被称作 BrowseRank 搜索技术， 该技术可能对搜索领域到来巨大震动。 BrowseRank 是微软针对 Google 的 PageRank 算法而提出的一种新理论，Google 的 PR 技术主要基于链接，这种方式非常有效，但存在着一定的漏洞。这个来自微软中国的研究组说，那些想作弊的网站很容易通过 link farms 等手段欺骗 Google 而获得好的排名，另外，链接本身并不会告诉你用户在该页上待了多久，或者该页对用户的价值。 “);最近阅读过此文章的网友: 历代奥运会使用的火炬和吉祥物 分子计算:逻辑层 [...]

  5. July 27th, 2008
    4:04 pm

    renaissance chambara | Ged Carroll - Links of the day said:

    [...] Microsoft dreams up a new kind of search with BrowseRank » VentureBeat [...]

  6. July 29th, 2008
    10:00 pm

    8hands Mobile nieuw dieptepunt in webdolheid - Frankwatching said:

    [...] SEO-uitdaging Volgens mij moet met het nieuwe Microsoft BrowseRank, concurrent van PageRank en TrustRank, een kostencalculatie kunnen worden ontwikkeld van wat een [...]

  7. July 31st, 2008
    5:30 am

    Ar būtų naudingas BrowseRank? : nežinau.lt said:

    [...] PR netobulumo pati Google siekia mažinti jo svarbą. Google atstovai tikina, kad tikroji svetainių svarba nustatoma pagal daugiau kaip 200 skirtingų parametrų, įskaitant ir PageRank. Tačiau vienas dalykas, ką sako Google, o visai kitas – kaip reaguoja [...]

  8. August 21st, 2008
    4:57 am

    Eniro blogg » Blog Archive » Behöver vi en social söktjänst? said:

    [...] somras var det en kortare diskussion på nätet om Microsofts försök att skapa en ny sökalogritm. Tanken är att utmana Googles dagens etablerade system med pagerank och istället fokusera på [...]