In ranking, there's "query independent" and "query dependent" quality signals.

· Bits and Bobs 6/23/25
  • In ranking, there's "query independent" and "query dependent" quality signals.
    • Query dependent: "for this specific query in the past, how likely are people to click this result?"
    • Query independent: "what is the PageRank of this document in general?"
    • The query independent component is normally the more important ranking factor.
    • The query dependent signal is more often a "twiddle" on top.
    • If this weren't true, then at the very beginning Google wouldn't have been able to get so far so quickly with PageRank as the main innovation.
    • This means that systems where most people can agree on a baseline quality can have good ranking even if there's not much overlap in queries.
      • The query independent signals are powerful enough.
    • One user's completionist approach to checking every suggestion could improve query independent signals for everyone.
    • You only need a very small number of highly motivated users to improve query independent signals for everyone.

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