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Real Time Web, Challenges and moving towards a PeopleRank
May 23rd, 2009
I’ve spent some time lately thinking about the challenges ahead when it comes to the real time Web. There are a lot of challenges for sure, going from building an infrastructure able to index the real time web to being able to deal with the flow of information. To me, the real problem has never been about whether or not I’m going to be able to keep up with the flow of information that is only going to get worse or how Google or twitter is going to make all this scalable, but more about how are we going to make this information relevant, searchable and accurate?
The Google PageRank
As you all know, more than 10 years ago, Google solved the problem of indexing the Web in a relevant way with their PageRank algorithm. It was sure a clever idea, but when you really think about it, that is how life works everyday: you become an expert in something when people begins to call you an expert. Well, it’s the same for websites: your website becomes important the more people link to it. That is all based on credibility.
The first metric was clear: backlinks.
Social media equivalent to PageRank
The real time web is synonymous with social media. Real time web exists because we create content in real time mainly though social networks like twitter, facebook and friendfeed. While backlinks is a very good metric for a website’s credibility, what is a good metric for content produced by individuals?
This is going to be the next challenge as we will want to search the real time Web at some point. Google admitted that they’ve done a poor job when in comes to creating stuff that works on a per-second basis and that twitter is clearly leading the way. While twitter index things in real time, I don’t think they’re doing a very good job at the moment when it comes to providing quality search results: spam is still a problem and anybody can appear in the search results for a trending topic just by mentioning a popular #hashtag.
We are exactly where we were 10 years ago, it is possible to appear in search results just by using certain keywords. So, how to index the real time Web in a way that is relevant and provide accurate search results?
This is a fairly complex problem because the real time Web doesn’t just involve websites, it involves people. We need an equivalent to PageRank that work just as well, but for content produced by individuals on personal profiles.
Moving towards a PeopleRank
Whether it’s going to be through OpenID or a unique profile service, there will be a need for a single identity online. Just like you build your credibility in real life, building your credibility online will be just as important. If we want to index the real time web and people’s conversations, then index it and make it searchable, we need metrics to decide what content is really relevant and what content might be spam or just plain irrelevant.
I used the term PeopleRank here and I know it’s scary to rank someone on a scale from 1 to 10, but that’s not what it is. I’m referring more to a way that could take various forms and that would allow us to filter information based on people’s credibility and reputation.
Breaking the platform barrier
This has to go beyond the twitter reputation or Facebook reputation, if we really want to build something as useful as the current Google Search but for real time Web, we have to break the platform barrier. In fact, this is where the real challenge is: breaking the platform barrier, linking different profiles together and establishing metrics to rank these profiles.
What do you think? What are the big challenges when it comes to real time Web and how would you solve them?
15 Responses to “Real Time Web, Challenges and moving towards a PeopleRank”
What do you think?
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Ben,
I'm not a techie so can't post a response without sounding goofy. I'm in the position of what it is like to be in a foreign country, understanding most of what is being said but don't know how to respond correctly, But I get what you are saying. Just to say that I always appreciate what you write. It is always different, interesting and informative. So I look forward to reading what the techies say here.
Hi Adele, it's good to see you commenting in here again!
You're right, it was a bit of a techie post, but thank you for your positive comment, I really appreciate it.
very interesting topic , but what i'd like to say , is that more than 70 pr cent of internet business ,is directly or indirectly based on google page rank , so i can't imagine how a new pageranking system could affect the supremacy of google
So much of this stuff is based on PR simply because there's no other way around that. You can't just ignore google. Once there's some serious competition for it, the situation may change.
nice tips thanks,,
The thing that made me comment here is the phrase 'PeopleRank'. Its a known fact that to rank well in search engines, your site needs links. Your site needs lots of RELEVANT, TRUSTED links from a VARIETY of sources before your site will rise in the natural search results. I kinda, perhaps, lose my faith in the PageRank-dom though, and Bent you just stole my words with this post. I have seen the websites that have links in the number of hundreds only and they seem to be competing with their rivals which have in thousands. They not only compete but they are seen leaving their rivals behind in terms of PageRank and the Google ranking as well. firmly believing in what they achieved was their strong social media campaigns.
So, it is becoming an epidemic to run your SEO campaign more on social media base rather than old school of thoughts that advocate directory submissions and link building like do-follow stuff in particular.
On social media sites, your content can be submitted and if enough people relate to it, your link will 'get viral', that may result in thousands or even gigantically tens of hundreds of thousands of views. I was a part of an article that received over 30,000 links and that alone drove over 200,000 unique visitors in a single 24-hour period and millions over one week's time, via social media. In the astonishing results, their ranking and trust went through the roof!
So, I really want this term 'PeopleRank' to get evolved rather seeing any improvements in 'PageRank' phenomena.
Ben … Wow! This is so thought provoking and a lot to take in … with kids all home for summer (our 5 and a couple of their friends) I had to re-read this a few times. LOL … I've had similar thoughts on this … and I've often wondered how you would ever rate someone's online "reputation" and I've never been able to come up with a viable option. No matter what Google comes up with to determine a page's importance … there are those who will always figure out how to "game" the system … leaving the rest of us with difficult decisions to make (keep up no matter what or be left behind *sigh*). I'll be following along to see what others think too … and thanks for the great post! *SmiLes* Suzanne
I'm trying to add a real-time web counter to my web page that will show exactly how many people are currently viewing my site.
Peoplerank….well, that's an interesting concept, as long as it calculated based on what their thought is, what who they are…
Sooner or later we have to think beyond PR because I can see many sites who outranked other sites with pretty good pr. I think Google is changing its algos as well. I really like your concept of peoplerank.
The internet business system has changes now. Every webmaster now concern about their websites page rank and how people look their websites online. Its most important for every one to look after page rank positively.
Quite nice topic. PageRank is what people and every webmaster thinks to get high and higher. Google page rank (PR) is consider as the best rank amongst all. Social media boost the ranking and page ranking of website. Very nice information you have post. Thanks Ben.
The higher in rank, your star begins to take on a gold color. Once you acheive the highest rank in multiplayer (Rank 10) the star is total bright gold.
Thanks for the information. These useful tips for a healthy web community.
Very True! Sooner or later we have to think beyond PR because I can see many sites who outranked other sites with pretty good pr. I think Google is changing its algos as well. I really like your concept of peoplerank.