1. Management Information System
CIA- 1
Component- 1
Google’s PageRank: A Decision
Support System in Itself
Submitted by:
Akash Sagar
Roll Number: 1620305
4-BBA-C

2. Index
Serial
Number
Topic Page
Number
1 Abstract
2 Introduction
3 PageRank
4 PageRank as a Decision SupportSystem
5 Conclusion

3. Abstract
In this article I have analysed the working of Google’s PageRank Algorithm (the algorithm
which decides the relevance of the webpages displayed in response to a query by a user) and
found that the algorithm works as a Decision Support System in itself, thereby helping us to
get optimized search results which match our requirements and our queries. I have also
mentioned the various problems faced by the PageRank Algorithm and have recommended
solutions. I have also envisaged a future where in Google can improve its search results using
A.I integration, thereby making our time searching for information and receiving top quality
information that much easier.

4. Google
Google, it’s a service used by almost everyone across the world on an hourly basis. Let their
objective be to gain more knowledge, complete an assignment, find a restaurant or a store, or
even to find the quickest route to our workplaces, google has most definitely transformed into
an everyday phenomenon since its inception 19 years ago. Google is a company that specialises
in internet related services and products; including online advertising technologies, online
searches, cloud computing, software, and even hardware.
However, what makes google so useful? Without a doubt it is the sheer amount of knowledge
available on the internet that makes google such a viable tool for all of us. This is aptly reflected
in the company’s mission statement which reads as; "Organize the world's information and
make it universally accessible and useful.”
In the following pages I will be talking about Google’s PageRank algorithm and how it is a
Decision support system on its own.
Decision Support System
A decision support system (DSS) is a system based information system that supports and aids
an organisations top and middle management in making decisions. A DSS helps us in making
decisions regarding problems that are rapidly changing and those that are not specified in
advance. A DSS can be fully computerized, run by us or even a combination of the two.

5. PageRank
PageRank is an algorithm which google uses to gauge the importance of a web page. While it
is one of many factors that contribute to which pages show up on our google search pages, in
this article I will be focussing purely on PageRank.
The Wikipedia Page of PageRank gives us the following information:
PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough
estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important
websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.
How Does PageRank Work:
In essence how PageRank works is, it assigns numerical weights to each webpage on the World
Wide Web. This implies that every single webpage which is a part of a website is given an
individual ranking based upon its importance and relevance. Once a weight is allotted to a
webpage, the cumulative weights of all the web pages on a website put together will determine
the weight to be assigned to a website as a whole.
Page and Brin (The founders of Google) theorized that the most relevant pages on the internet
will be the ones with the most number of links leading to them. This effectively works much
like a research paper, where citation counts are used to find the importance of researchers and
research. The more often a particular paper is cited by other papers, the more important that
paper is deemed.
As the information from Lifewire (www.lifewire.com) says:
PageRank doesn't stop at link popularity. It also looks at the importance of the page that
contains the link.
Pages with higher PageRank have more weight in "voting" with their links than pages with
lower PageRank. It also looks at the number of links on the page casting the "vote." Pages with
more links have less weight.
This also makes a certain amount of sense. Pages that are important are probably better
authorities in leading web surfers to better sources, and pages that have more links are likely
to be less discriminating on where they're linking.

6. This information will help us understand how important the PageRank algorithm is, as seen
above based on the ranking of the pages, a website is deemed to be important or not and
therefore will determine which pages will show up when we type in a search query in the search
bar.
However, this opens up the possibility for people who want to generate ad-revenue without
offering any value adding content in return to manipulate the ranking of their pages so that they
show up higher on Google’s search pages. As an answer to this issue google has been
consistently updating their PageRank algorithm to ensure that only relevant and informative
content is delivered to the user. After all being a service based company if it loses its users,
how will it generate revenue?

7. PageRank as a Decision Support System
PageRank at the end of the day works as a DSS because it helps itself decide on which pages
to give which ranking to and on what basis. Its coding allows PageRank to ascertain and decide
on a rank for the millions and millions of pages on the internet and this rank in turn influences
which results turn up for us, as an answer to our search queries. Therefore if we are to look at
it objectively, PageRank by extension helps Google as a company decide on which pages to
show to its user based upon the user generated request. Thereby helping the company make
important decisions which if left unattended to will prove disastrous for the company.
A few major updates which strengthen the ability of PageRank to function as a DSS are:
1. Panda: The panda update to the algorithm works as quality control and removes the
ranking of webpages that are duplicated, uses plagiarized content, contains user
generated spam and uses keyword stuffing.
2. Penguin: The penguin update was aimed at removing the ranking of links that were
acting as spam and also those links with over optimized anchor text.
3. Hummingbird: The hummingbird update was developed and released with the
intention on quality control, as this update checks the ranking of pages with poor and
low quality.
4. RankBrain: The RankBrain update enabled the algorithm to target and remove the
ranking of pages that lacked query specific relevance features and was filled with poor
content.
5. Fred: Fred is an update to the algorithm that was designed to target webpages with low
quality content mainly designed to obtain advertisement revenue by offering very poor
content quality.
From the updates and their functions mentioned above, it is clear that Google has been adding
on to the algorithm of PageRank, enabling it to make better decisions regarding the content of
the webpages and assign a well-deserved ranking for the pages so as to ensure maximum gain
for the end users.

8. Conclusion
In short, we all have google to thank for, as their algorithm by functioning as an effective DSS
has made our lives so much easier. A vast majority of the information we obtain on a daily
basis is from google. We all are enjoying the comforts of a DSS system programmed to help
us in every way possible by giving us valuable, informative and relevant results for our benefit.
Problems Encountered:
The main issues with the PageRank algorithm is the fact that people who wish to generate
undue ad-revenue can manipulate their websites to have a higher and false rank thereby giving
them a good chance to generate revenue by not providing anything to the users who are tricked
into visiting the site.
Solutions/Recommendations:
Google has already deployed a vast array of updates to combat the threat of manipulation as a
whole over the years, consequently strengthening the decision making ability of the PageRank
algorithm. While this is a viable solution, my personal recommendations is to simply keep
updating the algorithm periodically and with diligence so as to ensure that any blind spots are
quickly disabled , leading to a better search experience for the users.
Future Implications and Advancements:
With breakthrough advancements in the I.T and Artificial Intelligence sectors, I definitely
foresee a future wherein Google can determine the quality and relevance of a web page purely
with its PageRank. Such an advancement will help content creators the world over who are
starting out and putting up good quality content to get noticed sooner, so that we all can share
our knowledge and grow together with respect to the information which we can share and
receive. This can be achieved by integrating A.I. processes into the main coding of the
algorithm of PageRank.
A future wherein quality and number of links (Outward and Inward) are used to optimize search
engine results especially with google will surely help us in advancing our knowledge to new
extremes.

9. References
1. www.wikipedia.com
2. https://searchengineland.com/8-major-google-algorithm-updates-
explained-282627
3. https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-google-pagerank-1616795
4. The Google PageRank Handout #24