Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings Review

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(More customer reviews)Langville and Meyer have done a superb job describing both Google's technical foundations, and the broader subject of how search engines rank pages. Over half the book is devoted to explaining the maths and rationales behind PageRank. The level of maths is understandable to those who have done some university level courses on linear algebra (i.e. matrices).
The book also has considerable value in analysing what other organisations (like search engines) and researchers have cobbled together. It gives a useful summation of the state of the research, circa 2006. Essentially, everyone seems to focus on link analysis, after Google revolutionised the industry in 1998 by using this. It blew away the previous leader, AltaVista.
It is true, as the authors point out, that most of the material here has already been published. But as discrete events, scattered through various scientific journals and websites. You can certainly get explanations of PageRank on several websites. But the mathematical depth and reliability of those discussions can vary with the site. The book is far handier.
It is a good starting point, if you are interesting in devising your own search methods.

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Why doesn't your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? The first book ever about the science of web page rankings, Google's PageRank and Beyond supplies the answers to these and other questions and more.

The book serves two very different audiences: the curious science reader and the technical computational reader. The chapters build in mathematical sophistication, so that the first five are accessible to the general academic reader. While other chapters are much more mathematical in nature, each one contains something for both audiences. For example, the authors include entertaining asides such as how search engines make money and how the Great Firewall of China influences research.

The book includes an extensive background chapter designed to help readers learn more about the mathematics of search engines, and it contains several MATLAB codes and links to sample web data sets. The philosophy throughout is to encourage readers to experiment with the ideas and algorithms in the text.

Any business seriously interested in improving its rankings in the major search engines can benefit from the clear examples, sample code, and list of resources provided.

Many illustrative examples and entertaining asides
MATLAB code
Accessible and informal style
Complete and self-contained section for mathematics review

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The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life Review

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(More customer reviews)As a glance at the "Look Inside" feature here on Amazon proves, Len Fisher writes a clear, interesting prose, raising important questions and suggesting rules that will help you make better decisions. He describes and applies 33 such rules in this latest contribution to popular science.
His basic thesis is that complex behaviors can be described by a simple rule. For example, gigantic numbers of fish seem to have a single mind -- but all a single fish has to know is to follow the fish immediately in front of it. Watching through your faceplate at gigantic schools of fish as they weave through the water -- you can see this rule in action in beautiful living color.
You can apply the same approach in trying to find a bargain, an approach that works best where there are many sellers and the products are fairly similar to each other.
The basic idea is "to estimate how many samples of the item might be available in total, and then look at a limited selection of these before choosing the next one that is at least as good (in terms of price and quality) as the best of those that we have so far seen. This procedure saves time and effort, and also reduces the possibility that we will spot a bargain, keep looking for a better one, decide on the original one, and go back only to find that it has been sold!"
Fisher explains the use of statistics in three scenarios:
"If we are going for the very best, we should look at one-third of all those available before going on to select the next one that is as good or better than the best that we have already seen (in terms of the lowest price for the same quality). This gives us a 33% chance of finding the very best bargain, and a very high chance of finding an extremely good bargain.
"If we are happy to accept a sample in the lowest 10% of prices, we need only look at 14% of the samples on offer before choosing the next one that we see which is at least as cheap as the cheapest of these. This gives us an 84% chance of settling on one among the cheapest 10%.
"If we are happy with a price in the lowest 25%, things get even better. We need only to look at 7% of the samples before choosing one that is at least as cheap as the cheapest we have seen. This gives you a whopping 92% chance of finding a bargain in your chosen range!"
Of course, if it's easy to find additional offers, or if it's fairly easy to get back to a better offer to see if it's still available, you may be able to get more/better/cheaper by spending a bit more time. Once you get the basic approach in mind, however, you'll be able to decide when to stop looking, make your choice, and get back to reading about other examples of how simple rules lead to great complexity.
Fisher's website is filled with additional examples, and his clear joy in reading and writing about science at work in our everyday life.
Robert C. Ross2009

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One of the greatest discoveries of recent times is that the complex patterns we find in life are often produced when all of the individuals in a group follow the same simple rule. This process of "self-organization" reveals itself in the inanimate worlds of crystals and seashells, but as Len Fisher shows, it is also evident in living organisms, from fish to ants to human beings. The coordinated movements of fish in shoals, for example, arise from the simple rule: "Follow the fish in front." Traffic flow arises from simple rules: "Keep your distance" and "Keep to the right."Now, in his new book, Fisher shows how we can manage our complex social lives in an ever more chaotic world. His investigation encompasses topics ranging from "swarm intelligence" to the science of parties and the best ways to start a fad. Finally, Fisher sheds light on the beauty and utility of complexity theory. An entertaining journey into the science of everyday life, The Perfect Swarm will delight anyone who wants to understand the complex situations in which we so often find ourselves.

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