PageRank and Social Network “Authority”
Google just applied for a patent to apply it’s PageRank algorithm to Social Networks. On the surface, this seems like a great idea for Google and for Advertisers. But is it actually useful?
Search results are based off of two completely independent factors, relevance and importance. PageRank is about importance, but other parts of Google’s organic search algorithm address relevance. Applying PageRank to social nets makes tons of sense for determining importance, but targeting ads requires relevance, not importance. (Google already has the best-in-class social network page *relevance* determining engine: Google AdSense / Content Match.
The only new added value I see for Google/Advertisers in determining which social network pages are more *important* are:
a) Improving organic search results by differently valuing links from different profiles (although PR already does this indirectly, since friends=links).
b) Charging more for ads placed on more prestigious pages, like on Tila Tequila’s MySpace profile.
This seems really cool on the surface, but the more I think about it, the less impressed I am.