In conversation with… Jim Lanzone & Apostolos Gerasoulis of Ask Jeeves/Teoma
It's been quite some time since we last had an "in conversation with" feature (but don't worry, there are more in the pipeline).
I'm particularly pleased (and honoured) with this one. Not only did I get to speak with Jim Lanzone, Senior Vice President, Search Properties at Jeeves. I also got to speak to Apostolos Gerasoulis, founder of the Teoma search engine (which powers Ask Jeeves) and former Professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University.
Anyone who reads my scribbling in this and other online publications will be aware that, I've long been a great admirer of the work of Apostolos Gerasoulis.
Of Greek origin, he is regarded as one of the leading figures in the field of information retrieval on the web. His background is in research on the processing of large data sets. And with the web being the largest data set there is - he has been able to look at it from a different perspective, enabling him to solve a problem in web search which had confounded many.
There are two main link-based algorithms which have been developed in the web research community. Many know of PageRank at Google, as it has been so visible there. The other is HITS (Hyperlink Induced Topic Search) an algorithm developed by foremost computer scientist Jon Kleinberg.
If you don't know the difference between the two and the problem which so hindered the Kleinberg algorithm, then some of this interview may not make sense. It's pretty much a non scientific conversation. However, a little background is probably required to get a total understanding, as there are certain points where an assumption of the reader's prior knowledge is made.
So, you may wish to first read a paper I wrote on the subject of the two algorithms and what set the Kleinberg algorithm apart. Again I wrote this as a non scientific paper in order to simply get the essentials across.
It's not a long read and many people have told me that it has been very useful in, not just helping them understand more about the Kleinberg algorithm, but generally speaking, why links are so important in search engine marketing.
You'll find it here (requires Acrobat reader):
http://www.search-engine-book.co.uk/LinkEquityExplained.pdf
Here are some takeaways from the interview.
Does Google use PageRank? No says Apostolos. Have they created some kind of local implementation based on anchor text? Yes says Apostolos.
In fact, when I heard that opinion, it really made me think that, what I wrote about Google, perhaps, moving towards keyword dependant results following the Florida episode, may have a little more substance.
And the number of times that Apostolos mentions that search is not just about the algorithm, "it's about the infrastructure" has me thinking that my opinion about Google's "dark fiber" dabbling may, in part, also be about that.
Here's another take away, from Jim, this time.
In this business we talk about up to 95% of all traffic on the web coming from search (that's an arbitrary figure as I've seen so many variations).
However, I was very surprised when Jim told me that 80% of all searches are non commercial! I said: "At Jeeves?" He said: "on the web!"
So when I made my little complaint about the 20 AdWords listings we tend to see before the web results at Jeeves, he was able to point out that 80% percent of search results don't have them!
And what's the future of search. Is it still about links? Actually, the future is more about data on users. Find out about the web-galaxy developed by us (the web page makers) and the user-web-galaxy controlled by the search engines. And the link we need to create between them.
If you haven't read one of these features before, I should explain that they are virtually uncut, in detail, verbatim transcripts of my conversations, which are part of the research for my book.
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Usually they are face-to-face, but this one had to take place as a conference call. And as ever, it has everything… including the usual interruptions!!
If you're attending SES New York, I look forward to seeing you there.
Source: www.e-marketing-news.co.uk
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