Anand Rajaraman is another of those clued up computer scientists/entrepreneurs who takes the time to share their insights in a candid and accessible way. Today's How Google Measures Search Quality is a good example. Excerpt:
"Let me try to explain the latter point. There are two broad classes of queries search engines deal with:
- Navigational queries, where the user is looking for a specific uber-authoritative website. e.g., "stanford university". In such cases, the user can very quickly tell the best result from the others -- and it's usually the first result on major search engines.
- Informational queries, where the user has a broader topic. e.g.,
"diabetes pregnancy". In this case, there is no single right answer.
Suppose there's a really fantastic result on page 4, that provides
better information any of the results on the first three pages. Most
users will not even know this result exists! Therefore, their usage
behavior does not actually provide the best feedback on the rankings."
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