Hands-On Software Engineering with Golang

The model of the random surfer

To calculate the score for each vertex in the graph, the PageRank algorithm utilizes the model of the random surfer. Under this model, a user performs an initial search and lands on a page from the graph. From that point on, users randomly select one of the following two options:

• They can click any outgoing link from the current page and navigate to a new page. Users choose this option with a predefined probability that we will be referring to with the term damping factor.
• Alternatively, they can decide to run a new search query. This decision has the effect of teleporting the user to a random page in the graph.

The PageRank algorithm works under the assumption that the preceding steps are repeated in perpetuity. ...