The PageRank algorithm is a method used to rank web pages in search engine results, developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. It operates on the principle that the importance of a webpage can be determined by the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. Each link from one page to another is considered a "vote" for the linked page, and the more votes a page receives from highly-ranked pages, the more important it becomes. Mathematically, the PageRank of a page can be expressed as:
where:
This formula iteratively calculates the PageRank until it converges, which reflects the probability of a random surfer landing on a particular page. Overall, the algorithm helps improve the relevance of search results by considering the interconnectedness of web pages.
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