WWW Search Engines
Fall 2004
Sample student-submitted questions for exam #2.
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[Questions marked with an * are considered good ones by the instructor.]


1.*      q.)     What is link nepotism and why is it a problem?

2.      q.)     Explain the primary difference between Hubs and 
                Authorities in the context of link analysis.

3. What is the "random surfer," in what analysis technique was it 
introduced, and why is it an important factor?

4.* Name two downsides to the PageRank algorithm.

5.* Topic drift problem means that the most highly ranked authorities and 
hubs tend not to be about the original topic.  What causes this problem?  
What do you suggest to solve this problem?

6.* Describe the HITS algorithm in pseudocode.

7.* Explain the Rank-and-File algorithm.  Suggest some modification to the 
procedure and mention their implications.

8. What are the three manifestations of authoring idioms?

9.* Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of HITS when compared to PageRank

10.*  What is link nepotism and why is it a problem on the web?

11.* Define co-citation and bibliographic coupling.

12. What is the difference between a web link graph and a citation graph?

13.* Explain the multi-host nepotistic problem of "Clique Attacks".  Why
do HITS and PageRank fall prey to this, and how can they mitigate the 
problem?

14.* In the paper, "What's New on the Web?  The Evolution of the Web from a 
Search Engine Perspective" the authors focus on Link-structure evolution.
Briefly explain what this is, as well as why it is important for search 
engines.

15.* What is the key difference between PageRank and HITS, discuss their 
good points and weak points.

16. What is the graph model of HITS?  What is the problem in such graph 
model, give one solution to address it?

17.* Describe the system of Bharat and Henzinger

18.* Describe Davison's approach to nepotistic links

19.* Suggest 3 different improvements to the original Google PageRank 
algorithm

20. What is an eigenvector, as it applies to our subject?

21.* Give two examples of differences between PageRank and HITS

22.* When can apparent link nepotism be unintensional, and what are ways
to avoid overvaluing such nepotistic links?