So, it's the age of Democracy ... USA has finally managed to push a lot of countries towards the Democratic path which it considers to be better than the other existing Administrative Systems. Fair enough, it is :). Governments, Corporations all over the world now follow a populist approach towards Governance as well as Business. Give the world what the majority wants... We have Talent hunts on Television whose winners are decided by the PUBLIC - the majority who votes for the winner. We have Government Officials elected on basis of the number of votes he or she has gained. This approach, I feel is pretty good and probably manages to bring forward the better option available to us, most of the times.
Sometimes or many a times nowadays, populist ideologies are ruining the talented and deserving class of people. Talent show winners are mostly comprised of people who give a better 'performance'. So, a good singer might have to take the backseat because the crowd who votes, decides the winner on basis of the 'performance'. Too bad the talented and experienced musicians who are called as Judges hardly have a say in the entire process. Asha Bhonsale had once said in an episode of Sa Re Ga Ma, why call us when the crowd itself decides the winner... Similarly, and mostly applicable to India, the Government Officials are elected by the uneducated, unethical, uncultured, irrational and brain washed set of people who unfortunately make the majority nowadays. So we have the MASS deciding the winners, the elected representatives who again reflect an ideology which the MASS propagates. No wonder we have classless Politicians and untalented singers running the show... We have winners in Singing Competitions who please the crowd with their antics, dances and emotions, while the CLASS is left behind. Of course, we should have all rounders, but the main purpose of the Competition shouldn't be lost and i.e. finding a brilliant singer.
Google too follows a similar approach when it comes to ranking pages on its Search Engine. One of the most important factors considered for Ranking high on the Search Engine is the amount of BackLinks or references you get from other sites. A mention of your site along with a BackLink is considered as vote from that site to yours. More the number of votes, more the chances of you ranking high :). However, the big difference here is that the NUMBER of Votes is not the only factor that decides the ranking. Factors such as the QUALITY of pages, their reputation in the online world, how useful and genuine their content is, is taken into consideration. So if you have 100 backlinks from ordinary, not so good or spammy sites, not only do the votes NOT HELP YOU to rank, but they also spoil your reputation with the Search Engine. A similar link from a Reputed and Genuine site like Wikipedia, Howstuffworks, .edu, .gov sites scores many more poitns for your site than a 100 backlinks from ordinary sites would. So basically, not just the quantity of votes matters, but also the quality of people/sites giving you the votes. In other words your reputation is not going to be good if Hooligan sites vote back to you; likewise you stand to be more respected by the Search Engine when Quality Sites vote back to you. So along with MASS, the CLASS is also taken into consideration :).
This makes up the brilliant PAGERANK algorithm which Google uses to rank pages. How we use a PersonalityRank algorithm in real life to better our world is now an open question. You are most welcome to bring forward your ranking factors to decide the Quality of an Individual on Planet Earth :) ...
