• TechDirt, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:45 AM

Web industry analysts and search marketers all have a rough idea about how Google's PageRank works. But the Web giant's search algorithm has evolved over time, making it difficult to discern how the search king returns results and ads so effectively. Apparently, it's similarly complex to the brain's memory recall.

In the past, the blog TechDirt in jest said that Google Search works as a secondary brain for many people. As it turns out that joke isn't all that far from the truth, if you believe researchers at World Science (link: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/071205_google.htm), who proclaim that the brain's memory and recall is similar to Google's PageRank in determining what's most important for us to remember.

Which means it's something similar to the process of popularity. Google's PageRank determines results by adding up the total number of links a page containing a given set of keywords has, it then assesses the quality of those links, by measuring how popular those links are. According to the World Science report, our brains link concepts in the same way.

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