Alright, what about the "define:" feature?

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+mesothelioma

Just looking at the first few search results doesn't seem to show anything misleading... I can have a good physician friend actually look at this information... a proper case-study of course would balance the quality of information, how it is framed and presented, etc.

You can quantifie popularity... that is easy to understand. How would you quantifie "authority" ?

Would it be a number one site if it was about a policeman's views ?...the presidents ? or Jesus ?

Can you explain this to me Seth ?...or what is it here that I am missing ?

"Authority" as, roughly, accuracy, best available knowledge, most correct as far as we know.

That is, as in a sentence like "The National Cancer Institute has authoritative information on mesothelioma".

Oh...OK...that is what I was missing...I understand what you meant now...

I don't think it will ever be able to quantifie authority in any "sane and reasonable manner"...

as you state...

"Google ranks popularity, not authority" ...

and as my friend Martha Stewart would say

"thats a good thing"....

I believe Seth's point was that people mistake one for the other: if it's got a high Google ranking, it must be authoritative, because otherwise it wouldn't be so popular.

mythago

Yes I believe you are correct.

In the same way that a celebrity has a prime time
"political voice" because of movie star status...this is mistaken as "credibility" (for some people) ...due to popularity.

And so goes google.

However, the good thing about that is popularity is quantifiable. The problem is with the end viewer's interpretation who may be non discriminating. Hence, pop may = authority.

Authority is tricky .....back to police? scientist? the bible?...what authority do you bow down to ?

So I don't blame google for quantifying pop ...because it would be "hideous" if it
attempted to "determined" authority...

Imagine a ranking system in order of "authoritative source" ...by what and who's authority ? It would boil down to "what do the designers believe"

How do you quantifie authority ? and furthermore do you want to quantifie authority.

I say no, not a good thing.

That is what I'm trying to get at...

Thus being said I will point out that I'm somewhat cynical, sceptical, and perhaps even godless when it comes to concepts of authority and experts ....so I do realize that others differ on this point.

So I decided to run a small experiment.

I set up a blogspot blog with the delightful title

[Link to www.mesotheliomaattorney.blogspot.com edited - SF ] Mesothelioma Attorney
.

[Jay, sorry for the edit, not that I'd mind myself, but I think that such a "pure" test site might annoy the Googlebot and I DON'T want to do that! - Google *does* officially check my site! - SF]

It has Adsense ads on it and so far, a day in, I am afraid to say I cannot yet afford a Porsche. Not even a Hot Wheels Porsche. I'd give the tiny number but the Google bot is all seeing and it might violate the Terms of Service.

I'll keep you posted.