The Hilltop algorithm is an
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...
used to find documents relevant to a particular keyword topic in news search. Created by
Krishna Bharat while he was at
Compaq Systems Research Center and
George A. Mihăilă University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
,
it was acquired by
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
for use in its news results in February 2003.
When you enter a query or keyword into the
Google news search engine, the Hilltop algorithm helps to find relevant keywords whose results are more informative about the query or keyword.
The algorithm operates on a special index of ''expert documents''. These are pages that are about a specific topic and have links to many non-affiliated pages on that topic. The original algorithm relied on independent directories with categorized links to sites. Results are ranked based on the match between the query and relevant descriptive text for
hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text w ...
s on expert pages pointing to a given result page. Websites which have
backlinks from many of the best expert pages are ''authorities'' and are ranked well.
Basically, it looks at the relationship between the "expert" and "authority" pages: an "expert" is a page that links to many other relevant documents; an "authority" is a page that has links pointing to it from the "expert" pages. Here they mean pages about a specific topic with links to many non-affiliated pages on that topic. If a website has
backlinks from many of the best expert pages it will be an "authority".
See also
*
PageRank
PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank webpages, web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. A ...
*
TrustRank
TrustRank is an algorithm that conducts link analysis to separate useful webpages from spam and helps search engine rank pages in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). It is semi-automated process which means that it needs some human assistance ...
*
HITS algorithm
*
Domain Authority
*
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as "natural" or "organic" results) rather than dire ...
References
External links
*
Interview with Krishna Bharat Business Today, June 6, 2004
*
When Experts Agree: Using Non-Affiliated Experts to Rank Popular Topicsby K. Bharat and G. A. Mihaila is substantially the same, but under a different title.
Google Search
Reputation management
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