August 18, 2006 spout

The Internet Is a Meritocracy

It’s easy to think that if you’re already got a high page rank in google, that you’ll get more than your far share of traffic, polarizing the internet into a small number of sites that get all the hits. Luckily, according to Topical interests and the mitigation of search engine bias,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that’s not the case:

Our result has relevant conceptual and practical consequences; it suggests that, contrary to intuition and prior hypotheses, the use of search engines contributes to a more level playing field in which new sites have a greater chance of being discovered and thus of acquiring links and popularity, as long as they are about specific topics that match the interests of users as expressed through their search queries.”

In other words, if you’ve got something relevant to say, the folks that care will find it. Yet again, letting the internet decide yields the best result.

Source: Is there a googlearchy?