Google Trustrank
Posted on 02. Feb, 2009 by in myths
Matt Cutts Debunks The Google Trustrank Myth
Matt Cutts explains that a few years ago Jan Peterson and friends at Yahoo wrote a paper on something they called Trustrank. Yahoo’s version of Trustrank treats ‘reputation’ like it’s a physical thing that flows around the web via links. Note, that this is completely separate from Google. Coincidentally, Google was working on an anti-phishing filter at the same time. Needing a name for the their project, Google trademarked Trustrank.
Of course, you will get different definitions of Trustrank depending on which enlightened SEO you ask.
In summary, Yahoo’s Trustrank is all about a website’s reputation, whereas Google’s Trustrank is about combatting phishing nasties.
This does not mean that Google don’t use concepts for ‘trust’ in their algorithm.
