Topic Sensitive PageRank - Even More Accurate?
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Topic-Sensitive PageRank is a theoretical attempt to make the system of PageRank potentially more accurate. Instead of a single PR ranking, the TSPR calculation would create several different PageRanks, for each particular topic. The topics used for the tabulations would be representative of the theme of each specific webpage.
The idea would be to use a number pre-calculated and topic biased vectors to create a number of PageRanks for each web document. In that sense, the PR would be theme sensitive.
Instead of the PageRank being based on all incoming links, the Topic-Sensitive PageRank would be heavily weighted toward links that were related to the page's main subject area. Links from sites not directly on topic, with the specific webpage, would be assigned much less weight in the calculation.
How does Topic-Sensitive PageRank Work?
The currently used PageRank calculation is conducted once, and is completely independent of the search query. Because the PageRank is only marginally related to the search term, the PR remains constant at a single ranking.
In the Topic-Sensitive PageRank system, heavily linked pages bearing no informational relationship with the search term, will be given less weight for that topic. On the other hand, pages receiving only a few incoming links, but from very related sites, will be given much more consideration for that term. The result will be a higher TSPR for that site, for that specific search query, despite a much lower PR under the current system.
In order to create the specific representative basis topics, which would be limited in scope, not all possible query terms would be used. Specifically, the topic areas proposed by the TSPR system designers, would draw on the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) data base. Only a limited number of themes would be used to pre-calculate the TSPRs.
Next: How is Topic-Sensitive PageRank calculated? >>
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