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The Google+ Verified Entities Authority Blueprint"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ch3\u003EGoogle+ was built on Agent Rank's link based reputation score template - AgentRank+ Part ①\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#1\"\u003E1. Agent Rank the Patent Vs. Author Rank the shifting baseline.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#2\"\u003E2. Separate Google Author Credibility Score based on authenticity.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#3\"\u003E3. Back to square one for answers in the Agent Rank patent.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#4\"\u003E4. AgentRank+ is the Plus in Google+! The blueprint for G+ authority.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#5\"\u003E5. All ⑭ Claims of the Agent Rank patent already active as described.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#6\"\u003E6. The Million $ question: Does AR already affect ranking in Search\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-y0p1fCs0XYo\/U0ubXBuNkgI\/AAAAAAAAHoU\/9VucmRUK6xk\/s1600\/Agent-Rank-is-here-AR-Plus-part-1.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Agent Rank Plus - Part 1 - The Google+ Verified Entities Authority Blueprint\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-y0p1fCs0XYo\/U0ubXBuNkgI\/AAAAAAAAHoU\/9VucmRUK6xk\/s1600\/Agent-Rank-is-here-AR-Plus-part-1.png\" title=\"Google's Agent Rank is here Vs. Author Rank, the shifting baseline\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EExactly one year ago I published,\u003Cb\u003E Is Google+ Page Rank the culprit behind the current suspicions of active Author Rank?\u003C\/b\u003E The first of my \u003Cb\u003EPageRank in Google+\u003C\/b\u003E series titled. The story came about during a period of much analysis \u0026amp; discussion on the topic of what could be giving the noticeably strong ranking authority in Google Search to certain reputable Google+ Profiles, which tended to easily outrank all others, even outranking profiles with reshares of their own posts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThese reputable authors did not have nearly as high numbers of followers as some others, nor even as many +1's \u0026amp; comments overall, yet their uncanny ability to receive high exposure both in the Google+ platform itself \u0026amp; high ranking in personalized \u0026amp; non-personalized search were noticed by many. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E“Within  search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be  ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result  in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true  cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E– Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (Feb, 2013)\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor quite some time I had noticed that the Google+ Profiles (which are Authors) and the Google+ Pages (which are Publishers) all have their own PageRank score (viewable under certain conditions), which I referred to as \u003Cb\u003EGoogle+ PageRank or G+PR\u003C\/b\u003E and that the entities with the highest G+PR score always had the strongest ranking authority.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEmbedded here is that Google+ post in which I first explained this phenomena, and then continued it with a 6 part series on \u003Cb\u003Ethe power \u0026amp; authority of this G+PR.\u003C\/b\u003E Explaining how this authority is built \u0026amp; how like PageRank it is a link based reputation score, with an authors score being a function of incoming links through sharing of his content, citation of his content, +mentions of the author \u0026amp; even the authors own rel=author tags. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnbeknownst to me at the time was that \u003Cb\u003Eall of these functions, their operational structure, authority to rank \u0026amp; a detailed description of how this was designed by Google as a link based algorithmic reputation score for authors \u0026amp; publishers, were exactly what is described in Google's Agent Rank Patent written years before Google+ was ever created.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"g-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/110133760398936676625\/posts\/SmCEfovCee5\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor follow up on this topic here is the rest of this series last year \u003Cb\u003EGoogle+ PageRank\u003C\/b\u003E...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/0YcDp\"\u003EⅡ.How PageRank in Google+ is Earned. Link Myths Busted!\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/zHKhx\"\u003EⅢ.Why PageRank in Google+ Matters To You \u0026amp; Your Connections.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/uMcuo\"\u003EⅣ.PR in G+ - PageRank is Still The Guts of Google Search.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/ViToc\"\u003EⅤ.PageRank, Link Juice \u0026amp; SEO for Google+ Communities.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/N0xhD\"\u003EⅥ.Balance Returns to PageRank. Avoid The Dark Side.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E \u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe idea of building a system of verified entities with reputation scores towards improving semantic search has been around a long time\u003C\/b\u003E and I believe the Google+ system is already Google's functional fulfillment of that desire. However it was previously not confirmed to me until my recent scrutinous study that Google's Agent Rank Patent is the template with which that system was built.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1JzDhXpW_7w6sA8ib9xi7hYpGGxnGkfS8RFufBonqDr4\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EGoogle's Agent Rank Patent As Studied - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnited States Patent: 7,565,358 \u003Cbr \/\u003EGranted: July 21, 2009\u003Cbr \/\u003EInventors: \u003Cb\u003EMinogue; David\u003C\/b\u003E (Palo Alto, CA), \u003Cb\u003ETucker; Paul A.\u003C\/b\u003E (Mountain View, CA)\u003Cbr \/\u003EAssignee: Google Inc. (Mountain View, CA)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFiled: August 8, 2005\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe following paragraph buried deep inside the document, was particularly enlightening as to the type of algorithm we're talking about here:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003EIn one implementation, \u003Cb\u003Ean agent's reputation can be derived using a relative ranking algorithm, e.g., Google's PageRank\u003C\/b\u003E as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999, based on the content bearing the agent's signature. \u003Cb\u003EUsing such an algorithm, an agent's reputation can be determined from the extrinsic relationships between agents as well as content.\u003C\/b\u003E Intuitively, an agent should have a higher reputational score, regardless of the content signed by the agent, if the content signed by the agent is frequently referenced by other agents or content. Not all references, however, are necessarily of equal significance. For example, a reference by another agent with a high reputational score is of greater significance than a reference by another agent with a low reputational score. Thus, the reputation of a particular agent, and therefore the reputational score assigned to the particular agent, should depend not just on the number of references to the content signed by the particular agent, but on the importance of the referring documents and other agents. This implies a recursive definition: the reputation of a particular agent is a function of the reputation of the content and agents which refer to it.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EHere I'd like to mention a special thanks to \u003Ca class=\"g-profile\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/115620878851836664537\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E+David Amerland\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/b\u003Efor\u0026nbsp;advisement on the document study part of this project \u0026amp; adding useful commentary to my *\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1JzDhXpW_7w6sA8ib9xi7hYpGGxnGkfS8RFufBonqDr4\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAgent Rank Patent As Studied - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E .\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E*Note: David's comments should be viewable in the Google Documents margin comment bubbles.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"Ct\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Kfb_X8_dIkQ\/UyfpYTvbvvI\/AAAAAAAAHLw\/-rzD0TsLOTw\/s1600\/david-amerland.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Kfb_X8_dIkQ\/UyfpYTvbvvI\/AAAAAAAAHLw\/-rzD0TsLOTw\/s1600\/david-amerland.jpg\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #cfe2f3;\"\u003EJosh, I have  placed my comments in the document. I have gone over it several times  now. \u003Cb\u003EThat there is an Agent Rank in effect is without a doubt.\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cb\u003EThat it  is demonstrable for G+ content is also self-evident.\u003C\/b\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"Ct\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #cfe2f3;\"\u003EI am not 100%  convinced on its ability to rank content, particularly when it comes to  improving the ranking of a website or individual web pages. An  experiment I took part in, carried out by Eric Enge demonstrated that  this could be done but it was not permanent, the rankings dropped off a  while later. Personally I think the mechanism is there but not in effect  in that Google deprecates it when it lacks corroboration of the ranking  signals from outside the G+ environment. I mean that if a profile with a  high AR promotes content, you would expect to find corroborative  signals of that content, independently, across the web (citations and  social sharing on other social networks from profiles not associated  with the original profile) - lacking those the initial jump in ranking  in search is deprecated. Conversely when it does find those then it  becomes more permanent. \u003Cb\u003EGoogle has a patent allocating Trust Rank for  content in search that acts as a filtering system for the veracity of  content\u003C\/b\u003E -\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca class=\"ot-anchor aaTEdf\" href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/1yLcey\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehttp:\/\/goo.gl\/1yLcey\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"Ct\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #cfe2f3;\"\u003E...I think you've pretty much nailed it here regarding AR.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"1\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E1. Agent Rank the Patent Vs. Author Rank the shifting baseline.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor purposes of this discussion I specifically use the term \u003Cb\u003EAgent Rank\u003C\/b\u003E, rather than referring to what has become an almost mythical term, \u003Cb\u003EAuthor Rank.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe first refers to a very specific term used by Google to define what it calls \"Agent Rank\" in its patents.\u003C\/b\u003E Agent Rank covers a broader spectrum of entities than just authors, also describing publishers, editors \u0026amp; reviewers. There are numerous references to this in multiple Google patents, so to be clear on exactly what I am discussing we'll use that term \u0026amp; be referring directly to these patents.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe second term \"Author Rank\" has become a kind of shifting baseline (in my opinion),\u003C\/b\u003E by which ongoing articles on the topic consistently refer back to other writings on the topic \u0026amp; their interpretations, instead of back to Google's original documents. While the specific term Author Rank is not used by Google in their related documents, it has still become popularly used \u0026amp;arguably taken on a life of its own. This is not to say we shouldn't use the term in reference to reputation scoring of authors, but if we're talking about the broader context of Google's patents that distinction matters.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne reason for the confusion about what \"Author Rank\" really is, may be that the Agent Rank patent the concept was inspired from was published, then theorized \u0026amp; written extensively about years before Google+ was built.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EA shifting baseline is a type of change to how a system is measured, usually against previous reference points (baselines), which themselves may represent significant changes from an even earlier state of the system. - \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003EWikipedia\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA side benefit is we may avoid stepping in Author Rank Paper where ideological debates never cease. ;-)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThat said many highly insightful articles have been written referencing the term \"Author Rank,\" and from certain writers many of the practical principles of improving the quality of your author authority are still just as true as they ever were. A favorite author of mine I highly recommend on this topic has been\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca class=\"g-profile\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/107022061436866576067\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E+Mark Traphagen\u003C\/a\u003E \u0026amp; his extensive analysis of authorship in search results, as well as how to improve the quality \u0026amp; authority of a Profile's Authorship.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor quite sometime now we've been receiving a slew of vague answers \u0026amp; cryptic messages, about when \"Author Rank\" is coming from Google reps in the know. Some of these \"answers\" then being interpreted in a variety of confusing ways. Believe me I've looked up \u0026amp; been back through all of the answers as part of this study specifically in light of my current understanding of Agent Rank, to insure that my theories were not contradicted in them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EFrom this review it appeared quite clear to me, that the reason we kept getting the wrong answers is because we were asking the wrong questions... \u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ci\u003EIs Agent Rank \/ Author Rank already here?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ci\u003EWhen is Author Rank coming?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ci\u003EHow will it affect ranking in the Google Search results?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ci\u003EHow will types of content apply to an author's rank?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ci\u003EMust all applicable content be topically related?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhereas I feel that the answer to most of these questions lies in only one \u0026amp; that we already had the pieces of the puzzle to, but just needed to fit it together:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWhat is Agent Rank?\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"2\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E2. Separate Google Author Credibility Score based on authenticity.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnother reason to be cautious about using the term Author Rank, is that Google has a much newer unrelated patent called \u003Cb\u003EReputation Scoring Of An Author,\u003C\/b\u003E which describes an entirely different type of system that is used for authentication \u0026amp; determining a credibility score for authors which can be included in the author's reputation score for purposes of determining the author's rank.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis Credibility Score may also be closer a type of Trust Rank, than more specifically an author rank. The scoring is primarily based on reviews \u0026amp; the quality of authentication, this was previously used in Goolge's Knol, and is not a link based algorithm at all as is our current Agent Rank.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThat being closer to a tiered professional human review system, with increased focus on verification of academic and professional credentials \u0026amp; known association than an algorithmic system that could be easily applied across a wide number of entities. And I'll be happy to further detail this at a later time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EReputation scoring of an author\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnited States Patent: 8,645,396 \u003Cbr \/\u003EMcNally , et al. February 4, 2014\u003Cbr \/\u003EFiled: June 21, 2012\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #ead1dc;\"\u003E...\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #ead1dc;\"\u003EAn \u003Cb\u003E     authentication score\u003C\/b\u003E is determined for a contributor of the multiple contributors. The contributor's name and a representation of the     \u003Cb\u003Econtributor's authentication score is published online for display\u003C\/b\u003E on one or more second computers in association with the online content received from the contributor.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #ead1dc;\"\u003E...determining by the computer server system, a reputation score for an author of the online content item, wherein \u003Cb\u003Ethe reputation score is based\u003C\/b\u003E at least \u003Cb\u003Ein part on reviews\u003C\/b\u003E of the online content item that have been provided by one or more authors other than the author;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #ead1dc;\"\u003EThe method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer server system, a credibility score for the author of the online content item by obtaining personal information about the author that relates to education or employment of the author and verifying that the received personal information about the author is accurate;  and \u003Cb\u003Eadjusting the ranking of the author based on the determined credibility score.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"3\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E3. Back to square one for answers in the Agent Rank patent.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003EWhen I finished writing the Google+ PageRank series a year ago, there were still significant questions left unanswered.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Times,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EIf Google created this entire entity authority distribution system, why haven't we heard of numerous patents \u0026amp; papers referencing it?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow is it possible that something as seemingly significant as this has gone unspoken of \u0026amp; unseen when we have so much detail on most everything else?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWas the authority distribution system we were seeing planned all along, or is it just a happenstance of the PageRank algorithm already active in indexed content?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMatt Cutts frequently states, \"PageRank is our opinion of the reputation of a page\", so wouldn't the G+ PR on a Profile be Google's reputation score of an author?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat on earth is this Agent Rank patent for, if ten years after its designing \u0026amp; continuing updates thereon they are still not using it?\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn part 4 of my series \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+JoshuaBerg\/posts\/eDMsp6RNr69\"\u003EPR in G+ - PageRank is Still The Guts of Google Search,\u003C\/a\u003E 3\/22\/13, I wrote...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003EIn  a follow up to this, I want to explain more about why I believe  PageRank will continue to be the backbone of future algorithms,  including AuthorRank\u003C\/b\u003E \u0026amp; why I \"speculate\" that ranking  Authorship (possibly beginning to be) expressed through G+ PageRanking  could be the next evolution of this. If it looks like I've been leading  up to this debate it's not an accident, because I believe they are  inseparably combined.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EI  have long suspected that the phenomena of a PageRank type authority in  Google+ was intrinsically related to any potential Author Rank, if they  were not already one \u0026amp; the same.\u003C\/b\u003E Unfortunately I never continued  writing about what seemed like a strongly opinion saturated subject of  debates, instead moving onto writing about more of the analytical  details of Google+ SEO.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA few months ago while  analyzing a number of anomalies regarding Google+ Author's content in  Google Search, I came up with some new ideas on a potential model for  ranking authorship content \u0026amp; decided to research the topic  further for potential testing.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy search for original  corroborating research led me not long ago to read Google's Agent Rank  patent for the first time, and what do you suppose I saw there? Well if  the goal was to write something as confusing as possible, but still to  include all of the important details, I think they did an excellent job.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"4\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E4. AgentRank+ is the Plus in Google+! The blueprint for G+ authority\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe following is what I have learned from \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1JzDhXpW_7w6sA8ib9xi7hYpGGxnGkfS8RFufBonqDr4\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EGoogle's Agent Rank Patent As Studied - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E and I would especially like to encourage you to go to the this link where the entire patent is dissected with my detailed notes of my opinions on each of the different functions. It's really not as complicated as first impressions might lead one to believe. With my notes \u0026amp; highlighting there I think it should help you get a good sense of what it is talking about. The main excerpts I have included directly in this article, are still only a fraction of the entire patent, on which I have written many more notes.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn summary though, here are the main opinions I would like to explain about this patent...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E① The Agent Rank patent describes in detail a link based algorithm for determining a reputation score of verified agents.\u003C\/b\u003E This link based\u003Cb\u003E \u003C\/b\u003Ereputation scoring algorithm is very much like Google's original PageRank \u0026amp; appears to work together like a partner of PageRank, both corroborating authority of PageRank'ed content in several ways \u0026amp; receiving authority back from PageRank'ed content.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E② The phenomena I have previously referred to as Google+ PageRank, in almost every way fits perfectly with the\u0026nbsp;Google's Agent Rank description.\u003C\/b\u003E So these two as I have thus far described them over the last year, are more or less one \u0026amp; the same thing, with the biggest difference being that I actually now know it's called Agent Rank.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAside from that, there's a tremendous amount of new information now able to be learned from our much increased understanding of the patent. A lot of questions \u0026amp; theories that we've had about how it works, can now either be confirmed or debunked from the descriptive details in the patent. Also very interesting is to be able to see how it was planned \u0026amp; the potential directions for where it is going.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHere is what I have found to be one of the best descriptions buried several pages within the patent that explains the PageRank similarities \u0026amp; how as a link based algorithm it is applied.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003EIn one  implementation, an agent's reputation can be derived using a relative  ranking algorithm, e.g., Google's PageRank as set forth in U.S. Pat. No.  6,285,999, based on the content bearing the agent's signature. Using  such an algorithm, an agent's reputation can be determined from the  extrinsic relationships between agents as well as content. Intuitively,  an agent should have a higher reputational score, regardless of the  content signed by the agent, if the content signed by the agent is  frequently referenced by other agents or content. Not all references,  however, are necessarily of equal significance. For example, a reference  by another agent with a high reputational score is of greater  significance than a reference by another agent with a low reputational  score. Thus, the reputation of a particular agent, and therefore the  reputational score assigned to the particular agent, should depend not  just on the number of references to the content signed by the particular  agent, but on the importance of the referring documents and other  agents. This implies a recursive definition: the reputation of a  particular agent is a function of the reputation of the content and  agents which refer to it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn this manner, the reputation of a  particular agent can be calculated by an iterative procedure on a linked  database. A linked database (i.e. any database of documents containing  mutual citations, such as the world wide web or other hypermedia  archive, a dictionary or thesaurus, and a database of academic articles,  patents, or court cases) can be represented as a directed graph of N  nodes, where each node corresponds to an agent along with all of the  content pieces associated with that agent, and where the directed  connections between nodes correspond to links from a content piece of  one agent to a content piece of another agent. A given node has a set of  forward links that connect it to children nodes, and a set of backward  links that connect it to parent nodes.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFIG.  3 illustrates a linked database...\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-6TIKFGkSu-I\/UyggbPhGx_I\/AAAAAAAAHMA\/73JFH5YkTj0\/s1600\/agent-rank-patent-image-3-authority-distribution.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-6TIKFGkSu-I\/UyggbPhGx_I\/AAAAAAAAHMA\/73JFH5YkTj0\/s1600\/agent-rank-patent-image-3-authority-distribution.gif\" height=\"640\" width=\"518\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E③ The Agent Rank patent describes far more potential implementations than will ever be used, \u003C\/b\u003Eand some of them really make me wonder if they didn't just throw as many possible ideas in there they could possibly think of to make the document \u0026amp; hence understanding of its actual implementation that much more mysterious to discover.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EA key word in the document though is \"implementation,\"\u003C\/b\u003E which when running a word cloud on the document, I noticed is close to within the top 10 most common words used. Mostly it is used as a kind of function separator, referring often to \"in another implementation,\" or \"in one implementation.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe main point to understand from that, is that it would appear there are a good number of described functions that are not used \u0026amp; will likely never even get used.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E④ One of the most common misunderstood aspects that I have seen about Agent Rank, is that it absolutely has to rank authors topically,\u003C\/b\u003E whereas in Google's patent that is specifically described as optional. To highlight this point, the Agent Rank patent begins with the 14 specific claims (detailed below) described, topical ranking is not even listed as one of them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis particular implementation may not necessarily currently be functional, at least not in a big way. That said, I have some suggestions on that \u0026amp; here are my notes out of the document.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #f4cccc;\"\u003EParticular embodiments implement techniques for computing agent ranks on the basis of a corpus of content signed by those agents, where the corpus optionally contains explicit links among documents and signed content. The agent ranks can optionally\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan style=\"color: red;\"\u003E[important to note]\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #f4cccc;\"\u003Ealso be calculated relative to search terms\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan style=\"color: red;\"\u003E[for this a Topical PageRank could easily be used (TPR is a big topic with lots of available research)]\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #f4cccc;\"\u003Eor categories of search terms.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: red;\"\u003E [This topical categorization of rank while only optional to Agent rank, is not particularly known to be functional] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #f4cccc;\"\u003EFor example, search terms (or structured collections of search terms, i.e., queries) can be classified into topics, e.g., sports or medical specialties, and an agent can have a different rank with respect to each topic.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: red;\"\u003E[That said, I propose that within Google+, this may already be used to rank topic related Google Plussers for following, such as more personalized suggested users under Find People. And could be expanded to broader Suggested User Lists (SUL) such as the plus.google.com\/people\/follow .]\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑤ Currently functional all Google+ authors \u0026amp; publishers receive  reputation scores that can be seen as the Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) of a  profile or page. \u003C\/b\u003EThis is not however viewable until an agent  receives sufficient rank to move their PR above 1 and until after which  time a TBPR update also must occur. In my opinion it is safe to assume that this visible G+ Profile rank can be considered your visible AgentRank. Except that, \u003Cb\u003Ewe do NOT know this specifically from the patent.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAlthough as Matt Cutts has repeatedly expressed, \u003Ci\u003E\"We have very \u003Cb\u003Efine-grained notions of PageRank\u003C\/b\u003E within Google. Outside  of Google, PageRank is truncated to 10 levels that are visible in the  Google Toolbar.\" \u003C\/i\u003EAnd you can be sure that the actual Agent Rank also has to be very fine-grained, from which we will only see the example.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThere are actually a lot more details I could continue on here,\u003C\/b\u003E but I'll let you review the notes in my \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1JzDhXpW_7w6sA8ib9xi7hYpGGxnGkfS8RFufBonqDr4\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EGoogle's Agent Rank Patent As Studied - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E for more in-depth details.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"5\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E5. All ⑭ Claims of the Agent Rank patent already active as described.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Agent Rank Patent begins by specifying 14 specific Claims, followed by the Description \u0026amp; then the Summary, both containing far more details. \u003Cb\u003EFrom my thorough dissection of this document, it is my opinion that all 14 Claims of the Agent Rank patent are already functioning \u0026amp; observable as described and have been for quite some time.\u003C\/b\u003E There are however several optional \u003Cb\u003Eimplementations\u003C\/b\u003E that probably are not \u0026amp; a few that perceivably never will be.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo I'll explain each of these 14 claims one by one \u0026amp; describe how I believe they currently function:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Times,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E[Disclaimer: The following are my current opinions from personal analysis \u0026amp; observation.\u003C\/b\u003E Several of the claims have multiple applications \u0026amp; certain of my specific interpretations can be wrong, or applied differently. In fact I have changed my opinion of several features applying to certain claims several times already as I've studied along \u0026amp; am open to other suggestions. So although I have no doubt about my overall premise of this patent, if there is a devil here, he could be in some of the details\u003Cb\u003E.]\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E① The Google+ system itself, with its built in ability to verify digital signatures with authors, publishers and their content within the system, is the primary \u0026amp; most important claim in the Agent Rank patent. \u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 1:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003EA computer-implemented method \u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eof determining a reputation score f\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003Eor an agent \u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[in other words the reputation scoring is algorithmic]\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003E,\u003C\/b\u003E the method comprising: receiving \u003Cu\u003Emultiple digital content items in a data processing system comprising one or more computers,\u003C\/u\u003E \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[the Google Plus system] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eeach of the received digital content items being associated with a digital signature that uniquely associates the digital content item with a respective agent and an assertion made by the respective agent concerning the digital content item, the respective agent being one of multiple agents, each of the multiple agents being associated with at least one of the received digital content items; \u003Cu\u003Evalidating in the data processing system the associated digital signature for each of the received digital content items,\u003C\/u\u003E and \u003Cu\u003Eidentifying\u003C\/u\u003E, based upon the \u003Cu\u003Eassociated digital signature,\u003C\/u\u003E the agent responsible for making the assertion concerning the received digital content item;...\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E② When an agent shares a content item from another agent (a link to a page, a share, a reshare, or a mention), that link becomes a positive assertion of that item, because functionally Agent Rank is a link based reputation scoring algorithm. \u003C\/b\u003EAgent Rank determines and uses the current reputation score of the agent sharing the content to decide its value.Thus authority can be given from agent to agent by sharing their linked content items in at least any one of the following:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EYour Page is a different agent from your Profile so has its own authority. \u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA Page can share, or link to and receive links from other Profiles or Pages.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAnother Profile sharing a content item of the first agent.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAnother Page sharing a content item of the first agent.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA Profile or Page sharing a link (+mention) of the first agent.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 2:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein the digital content item \u003Cu\u003Eassociated by digital signature\u003C\/u\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Ewith the another of the identified agents comprises a link\u003C\/i\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003Eto  one of the digital content items associated by digital signature with  the first agent, and wherein determining the reputation score of the  first agent further comprises identifying the link\u003C\/span\u003E.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E③ The link to the first agent's webpages, or even the agent's Google+ content (digital content items) from the share of another agent, is considered an assertion of reputation for that first agent.\u003C\/b\u003E Therefore all the links from other agents to the first agent \u0026amp; their verified content, are considered towards the reputation scoring of that agent, based on the reputation score of the referring agent.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 3:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 2, wherein \u003Cu\u003Ethe link\u003C\/u\u003E \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[described in the previous paragraph]\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Ci\u003Efurther comprises \u003Cu\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003Ean assertion by the another agent \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/u\u003Eabout the content item associated with the first agent, and wherein \u003Cu\u003Ethe reputation score is a function of the association\u003C\/u\u003E by the another agent. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E④ Web pages may include content pieces by other agents different from the author,\u003C\/b\u003E for example it may have digitally signed comments by other agents. The publisher of the web page itself with its own digital signature and verification link, is also a separate agent from the first. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 4:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein \u003Cu\u003Ethe web page includes\u003C\/u\u003E \u003Cu\u003Eat least another content piece\u003C\/u\u003E associated by digital signature with an agent \u003Cu\u003Edifferent from the first agent.\u003C\/u\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑤ Within Google+ itself, digital signatures are automatically appended to content items.\u003C\/b\u003E Google also has \u0026amp; is progressing on methods of automatically assigning authorship to some external website pages.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 5:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein \u003Cu\u003Ethe digital signature\u003C\/u\u003E that uniquely associates the digital content item with an agent \u003Cu\u003Eis appended to the digital content item. \u003C\/u\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E⑥ The repository that stores the agent's verified digital signature for verification with all other content items is built into Google+ itself.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 6:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein the digital signature that uniquely associates the digital content item with an agent is stored in a repository separate from the digital content item. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E⑦ Through Authorship external web pages (digital content items) wishing to claim association with an agent, must include a rel=author\/publisher (Authorship) link to  to the digital signature stored in the repository (the Google+ agent).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 7:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 6, wherein the digital content item includes a link to the digital signature. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E⑧ The web pages must then have a link pointing to them from within the Google+ Profile Contributor-to authorship system, which verifies that agent's claim to the content. The Google+ Page must also contain a link pointing to the website they wish to be associated with to be verified as the Publisher.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 8:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 6, wherein the digital content item is a target of a link associated with the digital signature and stored in the repository separate from the digital content item.\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[Where G+ profile Contributor-to section associates agent with his content] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑨ Agent reputation score (Agent Rank) is portable across the wider web through the use of Authorship tags.\u003C\/b\u003E An agent's verified content therefore, wherever it is published, will be considered towards the reputation score of that agent.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 9:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein metadata\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E [rel=author tag] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eassociated with at least one of the digital signatures indicates that a reputation score associated with the respective agent is portable across electronic storage locations for the associated digital content item in a network of electronic storage locations. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[Google Authorship associated with agent’s rank (G+PR)] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑩ The Agent Rank (reputation score) of an agent, is already used to determine priority ranking of content within Google+ itself.\u003C\/b\u003E For example, in search relevance within G+ and exposure of content \u0026amp; agent throughout the platform. Agent Rank has also long been used in determining ranking order of all Google+ content items \u0026amp; agents in Google Search.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 10:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, further comprising using the reputation score of the first agent to determine an ordering among resources containing the digital content items.\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[Using the agent’s rank to order its content, possibly within the G+ platform itself.] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑪ Aside from rel= tags, agent reputation score can also be attributed to an agent through the websites that they claim verified ownership to.\u003C\/b\u003E Google is also actively improving its ability to algorithmically understand the relationships between authors\/publishers \u0026amp; their content besides the use of rel= meta tags. This paints the matter of reputation scoring potentially wider than exclusively link based.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 11:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe method of claim 1, wherein the reputation score of the first agent is also a function of an unsigned digital content item that the first agent is associated with as an owner of an electronic storage location where the unsigned content item is found.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E \u003C\/i\u003E[Ownership of a website passes reputation to the agent (possibly rel=publisher passing authority to its verified page.] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⑫ The Google+ system itself (or the built-in functions of) is\/are also a specific fulfillment of the Agent Rank patent.\u003C\/b\u003E Then we go into further details of how an Agent Rank is a function of not only the links from his own author verified content, but from citations in Authorship verified content written exclusively by other agents, acting as a corroborating trust signal from other trusted agents \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 12:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EA machine-readable memory device\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E [the computer system] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Ecomprising instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to: receive multiple digital content items, each of the received digital content items being associated with a digital signature that uniquely associates the digital content item with a respective agent and an assertion made by the respective agent concerning the digital content item, the respective agent being one of multiple agents, each of the multiple agents being associated with at least one of the received digital content items;\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E [Within Google+ all the content items from multiple agents (or links from) are received, then associated \u0026amp; validated to each individual agent. ] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Evalidate the associated digital signature for each of the received digital content items, and identify, based upon the associated digital signature, the agent responsible for making the assertion concerning the received digital content item; and \u003Cb\u003Edetermine a reputation score for a first agent\u003C\/b\u003E of the identified agents,\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E [Then a reputation score is determined for each agent (Authors \u0026amp; Publishers).] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003Ewherein the reputation score for the first agent is a function of: \u003C\/b\u003Ea) for each of the digital \u003Cb\u003Econtent items associated \u003C\/b\u003Eby digital signature with the first agent and \u003Cb\u003Ereferenced by a digital content item associated with another of the identified agents,\u003C\/b\u003E a reputation score of the another of the identified agents,\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E [Part of the reputation score for each agent comes from the references to their content by other agents, based on that is based on the referencing agent's reputation score. This includes the citation and sharing of agents content within the Google+ platform.] \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eand b) \u003Cb\u003Ea reputation score of a second agent\u003C\/b\u003E associated with a second digital content item \u003Cb\u003Ethat references one of the digital content items\u003C\/b\u003E associated by digital signature with \u003Cb\u003Ethe first agent,\u003C\/b\u003E the reputation score of the second agent based on a second assertion made by the second agent that specifies a role of the second agent with respect to the second digital content item; and wherein at least one of a the digital content items associated by digital signature with the first agent is a first subset of a web page, the web page including at least a second subset of the web page that is not associated with the first agent, and the reputation score is not a function of the second subset of the web page. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[It would appear that authorship verified webpages of other reputable agents, whom cite the first agent, or their content, provide significant corroborating trust factors applied to the cited agent who is not an author of the content. Of course this includes citation \u0026amp; sharing the content of other agents in the Google+ platform as well. Note there are additional notions that could also be applied here.]\u003C\/span\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E⑬ There are currently several kinds of pages that match the description of signed content from multiple agents.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Col\u003E\u003Cli\u003EEvery G+ post is an authored page, with signed content assertions by other agents. These assertions can be in the form of a comment, or a plus 1, which are all verified to respective agents.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EEvery G+ reshare is an authored page with content signed by multiple agents.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA webpage on the wider web with Google+ comments embedded into it, such as Google Blogger pages, all have such functionality.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EGoogle+ Communities are websites with their own reputation score \u0026amp; signed content from multiple agents, where each community sub-topic is a webpage with signed content from multiple agents. Communities are described further.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELastly the patent specifically describes ad space being content not assigned to agent.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ol\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 13:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe machine-readable memory device of claim 12, wherein \u003Cb\u003Ethe web page includes at least another content piece associated\u003C\/b\u003E by digital signature with \u003Cb\u003Ean agent different from the first agent\u003C\/b\u003E.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E⑭ The hardware system, also containing the software that algorithmically processes the data to use the reputation scores of the agents to determine order of content resources. While this can refer to the ranking of content \u0026amp; prioritizing resources within Google+ itself, further details in the patent also explain its use in the reputation score ranking of content within Google Search.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPatent Claim 14:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: #d9ead3;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThe machine-readable memory device of claim 12, further comprising instructions operable to cause the data processing apparatus to use the reputation score of the first agent to determine an ordering among resources containing the digital content items. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E[The ordering of content (at least) within Google+ itself will be based on the agent’s reputation score.]  \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThus all 14 claims in the Agent Rank patent are already observably functioning as described.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"6\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E6. The Million $ question: Does AR already affect ranking in Search?\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓵ Authors \u003C\/b\u003E(Google+ Profiles themselves) with high reputation scores already rank  high in Google Search this is already a strong effect of Agent Rank.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓶ Publishers\u003C\/b\u003E (Google+ Pages) with high reputation scores also rank in Search results.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓷ Google+ Posts\u003C\/b\u003E by Authors \u0026amp; Publishers with high reputation scores also rank higher in Search than those with very low  scores.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓸ Google+ Reshares\u003C\/b\u003E by Authors \u0026amp; Publishers with high reputation scores  also rank higher in Search, frequently outranking the original post, at  least earlier on (sometimes balanced with unengaged posts by what I refer to as the Google+ Stream Effect).\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓹ Google+ Communities\u003C\/b\u003E all have their own reputation scores which affect their ranking in Search \u0026amp; their scores are also a function of the reputation of the agents which they are associated with. There are more details in the Agent Rank patent related to this.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓺ Google+ Community Subtopics\u003C\/b\u003E inherit their reputation scores from the main community, but have separate (usually lower) scores based on the activity types in that subtopic. Each community subtopic is ranked individually in Search that is affected by the reputation they retain.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓻ Google+ Local Pages\u003C\/b\u003E have their own reputation scores, which I'll strongly suggest affects their local ranking more so than any review, or +1 type factors, but in my opinion it is probable that a Localized PageRank algorithm is used (which is another topic altogether).\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓼ YouTube Channels \u0026amp; Videos\u003C\/b\u003E have reputation scores \u0026amp; you can be pretty sure these all have an affect on their rankings in Search. Recently YouTube comments became integrated with Google+, and the reasons for this are quite clear, as well as the direction this will go. Comments by high reputation agents already rank higher here \u0026amp; of course their association with the content will have its functional affect.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⓽ In-depth Articles\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003E⁈\u003C\/b\u003E is sort of a bonus idea we might include, courtesy of a Tweet from \u003Ca class=\"g-profile\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/109412257237874861202\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E+Matt Cutts\u003C\/a\u003E to our friend \u003Ca class=\"g-profile\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/107022061436866576067\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E+Mark Traphagen\u003C\/a\u003E, but for want of space in this episode I am not going to get into my specific theories on how that might work.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Np9GdWqeow0\/UyhR30lv-xI\/AAAAAAAAHMQ\/KZaswIFTAvo\/s1600\/agent-rank-tweet-to-mark-traphagen.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Np9GdWqeow0\/UyhR30lv-xI\/AAAAAAAAHMQ\/KZaswIFTAvo\/s1600\/agent-rank-tweet-to-mark-traphagen.gif\" height=\"171\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E⓾ \u003Cb\u003EWebpages⁈\u003C\/b\u003E\u0026nbsp; In my opinion, I have already seen an observable model for how Agent  Rank can be used to affect the ranking of webpages with reputable  Authorship content. The concept is quite simple and perceivably not difficult to test, but you'll have to look forward to the next part of this \u003Cb\u003EAgentRank+\u003C\/b\u003E series for answers on that.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/feeds\/3006813271172891062\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/3759980671192386261\/posts\/default\/3006813271172891062"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/3759980671192386261\/posts\/default\/3006813271172891062"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/agent-rank-is-here.html","title":"Agent Rank is here! The Google+ Verified Entities Authority Blueprint"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Joshua Berg"},"uri":{"$t":"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/110133760398936676625"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-kcGW80--2bk\/AAAAAAAAAAI\/AAAAAAAAK9g\/KAgVF8x-5dA\/s512-c\/photo.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-y0p1fCs0XYo\/U0ubXBuNkgI\/AAAAAAAAHoU\/9VucmRUK6xk\/s72-c\/Agent-Rank-is-here-AR-Plus-part-1.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"},"gd$extendedProperty":[{"name":"commentSource","value":"1"},{"name":"commentModerationMode","value":"FILTERED_POSTMOD"}]},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3759980671192386261.post-3917823406484863638"},"published":{"$t":"2014-03-06T18:32:00.002-06:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-04-14T06:54:37.047-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Agent Rank"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"AuthorRank"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Google Authorship"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Google PageRank"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Google Plus SEO"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"How Google Plus SEO Affects Posts \u0026 Search Rank - G+ SEO 2014 ④"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ch3\u003EHow does engagement affect the ranking authority of individual Google+ posts? \u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1ik7I8sZlss\/UxshyyfpEAI\/AAAAAAAAHEM\/_-USExEvGA8\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4logo.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1ik7I8sZlss\/UxshyyfpEAI\/AAAAAAAAHEM\/_-USExEvGA8\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4logo.gif\" style=\"cursor: move;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html#1\"\u003E1. Mystery of the social media post's ranking roller coaster.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html#2\"\u003E2. Google+ content changes authority with the flow of the stream.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html#3\"\u003E3. In search of the elusive Google+ post authority source.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html#4\"\u003E4. G+ rocket booster gets pages seen, but then pages must carry it.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-uPeXMpcYQHM\/UxkFsftn3sI\/AAAAAAAAHC0\/I3yEg2lCnSE\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Google Plus SEO - Part 4\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-uPeXMpcYQHM\/UxkFsftn3sI\/AAAAAAAAHC0\/I3yEg2lCnSE\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4.png\" title=\"How Google Plus SEO Affects Posts \u0026amp; Search Rank\" width=\"440\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe biggest question about our Google Plus SEO topic is probably, \"How does Google+ content behave in the Search ranking, both the posts themselves \u0026amp; the website pages shared on G+ in post links?\u003C\/b\u003E Does sharing links to our pages in posts help the ranking of those pages in Search?\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EMany of us who've been sharing our blog articles, or website pages almost exclusively on the G+ platform, have seen excellent results for the same content in search time and again. \u003C\/b\u003EWhile others have seen inconclusive or no improved search ranking results at all.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003ESo why is there still quite a variety of opinions on this \u0026amp; \u003Cb\u003Ewhy isn't everyone seeing the same results?\u003C\/b\u003E It is often not well understood that there are a wide range of factors \u0026amp; habits that affect optimal results for every profile, page \u0026amp; post, including but not limited to the following...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe types of content that people regularly share \u0026amp; how they share it.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EReception to that content \u0026amp; the types of engagement received from others.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe many different levels of authority those engaging profiles have \u0026amp; times it varies.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe number of actual engaging followers \u0026amp; especially authority influencers.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAmount of posts shared by the engaging profiles \u0026amp; the particular times shared.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe biggest concept I will disprove in this article is that, All posts from a specific Google+ profile are generally equal in ranking authority \u0026amp; stay that way for any length of time. In fact I've done some detailed analysis on this \u0026amp; will show you there is a wide range of authority levels that individual posts receive, with engagement typically being the biggest varying factor. I will also show you how that ranking power rises \u0026amp; falls based on the ever changing conditions of the Google+ stream.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003EConcept Busted:\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EAll posts from any \u003Cu\u003Eone specific Google+ profile\u003C\/u\u003E are generally equal in ranking authority \u0026amp; will stay that way for a predictable length of time.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/01\/google-plus-authority-from-social-seo.html\"\u003EGoogle Plus Authority is Powered by People - G+ SEO 2014 ①\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/01\/my-google-seo-ideas-confirmed.html\"\u003EMy Google+ SEO Ideas Confirmed After 322 Days - G+ SEO 2014 ②\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/02\/missing-gplus-pagerank-google-plus-seo3.html\"\u003EPageRank Crawls \u0026amp; The Missing G+ PR Phenomena - G+ SEO 2014 ③\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html\"\u003EHow Google Plus SEO Affects Posts \u0026amp; Search Rank - G+ SEO 2014 ④\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"1\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E1. Mystery of the social media post's ranking roller coaster.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESeveral common behaviors are often noticed with the way Google+ posts rank in Google Search that are quite unlike the search ranking patterns we have been familiar with from traditional webpages. \u003C\/b\u003EUnderstanding the patterns that this content usually follows in search \u0026amp; why, can explain a lot of the confusing anomalies that have been seen when trying to test the results of a Google+ campaign, or the search ranking affects of specific Google+ content.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EComplicating this matter considerably, is that these search ranking behaviors can vary widely depending on the authority of the particular profile or page sharing the content, the reception of that content from relevant followers, the authority of those followers, the timing of the posted content \u0026amp; the ongoing posting habits of not only the original posting profile, but also all of the profiles who reshare that content.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn general though, we see the ranking patterns of fairly popular posts as follows...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Col\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAn original Google+ post is publicly published.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWithin hours, or sometimes days, the post is crawled \u0026amp; indexed by Google Search.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe initial search ranking position for the post is typically just moderate.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EOther Google Plussers start engaging with and sharing the post.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWithin hours or days, the post gains authority \u0026amp; starts rising to first page ranking positions.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHigher authority G+ Profile shares may quickly or immediately outrank the original post.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe higher authority shares may get indexed first \u0026amp; in that case usually outrank the original.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe ranking of this G+ content will continue to rise erratically over the following days.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAfter days or weeks the G+ content noticeably drops, then settles to a more stable rank position.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe original post sometimes ends up retaining enough authority to outrank earlier authority shares.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ol\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis \u003Cb\u003Esocial media search ranking roller coaster\u003C\/b\u003E can be terribly perplexing \u0026amp; even frustrating to many, because they may get terribly excited by the initial high content rank, then equally disheartened by its settling.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis quick rise \u0026amp; then gradual falling pattern has sometimes been attributed to Google's Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) algorithm, first described June 2007, by Amit Singhal in New York Times, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/06\/03\/business\/yourmoney\/03google.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EGoogle Keeps Tweaking its Search Engine.\u003C\/a\u003E Certainly this is an important factor for plenty of notable fresh topics, especially newsworthy stories. Matt Cutts also discusses these phenomena in Why does a page's ranking change over time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ciframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BzfK6isC7CA?rel=0\" width=\"560\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe QDF algorithm works great for and explains many notable new topics, but this doesn't explain the ranking patterns we see throughout most social media content, namely content that is not particularly notable, is not a timely topic, and is sometimes just reshares of previous stories, but not necessarily new. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"2\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E2. Google+ content changes authority with the flow of the stream.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EUnlike the design structure of traditional websites, Google+ posts are all linked from, but travel in only one direction from the strong authority homepage \u0026amp; that is AWAY.\u003C\/b\u003E What I mean by the homepage is the Google+ content that first loads from a profile without you scrolling down the stream to other pages, which are then loaded as you reach them. If you view the source code to an uncached profile page prior to scrolling, you will see there are a limited number of posts there.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe authority that Google+ posts receive is PageRank, and PageRank was originally designed as a probability algorithm, a calculation of the odds that a random surfer will find your page. \u003Cb\u003ESo in general, the intention is that the further away a page gets from its primary linked source\/s (ie. connected nodes) the lower its PageRank goes.\u003C\/b\u003E On a side note, there have since been a variety of PageRank types \u0026amp; refinement algorithms, as well as reasons why the random surfer model does not apply quite the same way that it used to, namely since the introduction of nofollow links.\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EPageRank can be thought of as a model of user behavior. We assume there is a \"random surfer\" who is given a web page at random and keeps clicking on links, never hitting \"back\" but eventually gets bored and starts on another random page. The probability that the random surfer visits a page is its PageRank.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E Lawrence Page 1998\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EA fresh Google+ post starts out with the highest level of authority available from its own homepage,\u003C\/b\u003E as newer posts are added above, its authority, as well as its freshness and relevance gradually decrease. Under typical circumstances on an active profile, for a post that is \u003Cb\u003ENOT re-shared or appropriately engaged with\u003C\/b\u003E, by the time this post reaches the Google Search index, hours or even days later, its maximum authority level has already been reached \u0026amp; from there it will only decrease based on the quantity \u0026amp; type of posts continuing to be shared above on that particular profile's stream.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESo what would happen if we could freeze a G+ profile homepage \u0026amp; stopped posting any new posts to its Posts stream?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EOver time would the homepage posts lose their authority even though they're no longer being diluted by the continuing stream of fresher posts above?\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ECan we prove that these posts would actually keep their inherited high homepage authority if they remained on the top homepage just like links would on a traditional website?\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EYES! They would retain high homepage authority in the same way as links on a website homepage.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EOf course that's very hard to prove, because popular G+ profiles don't stop regularly posting.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EExcept, I have found the following perfect example of a PR 6\u0026nbsp;profile that stopped posting for well over a year \u0026amp; the intervening PageRank updates show the real story...\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EComplete spreadsheet at \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0AuALB-c5A_3vdDlrRlI5d2xCTWxrUDVZTFZiMlFscnc\u0026amp;usp=sharing\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003EGoogle Plus Post Ranks In-depth Analysis - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-TyvHP9g6Zzw\/UxhAmjGJTrI\/AAAAAAAAHBc\/9YJiLogixb4\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-high-authority-posts.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-f1AcxXPARs4\/UxjHPq_vZzI\/AAAAAAAAHCQ\/D-9x5pRGKsQ\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-high-authority-posts2.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-f1AcxXPARs4\/UxjHPq_vZzI\/AAAAAAAAHCQ\/D-9x5pRGKsQ\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-high-authority-posts2.png\" height=\"462\" width=\"640\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis does not at all mean that a G+ post reaches its maximum authority potential when first posted, because in fact most of the authority a Google+ post potentially receives is from reshares by other profiles. \u003C\/b\u003EWhile Google+ posts that receive no engagement at all even from high authority profiles, typically receive negligible search ranking authority.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EGoogle+ posts that receive no engagement at all even from high authority profiles, typically receive no observable ranking authority.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis downward spiral of unengaged post authority is similar to what was observed and covered in a September 17, 2013 article... \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/study-shows-no-clear-evidence-that-google-plus-drives-ranking-171789\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStudy Shows No Clear Evidence That Google+ Drives Ranking\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhile this study was excellent in principle \u0026amp;technical execution, \u003Cb\u003Ethe plan to isolate each Google+ share and not allow cross platform engagement\u003C\/b\u003E (that also being unnatural for high authority shares of quality  content), ultimately led to an observable falling graph line of all the  linked test pages in search ranking results and an observation of \"no clear evidence that Google+ drives ranking.\" If this study had instead been  titled, \u003Cu\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #660000;\"\u003EStudy Shows \u003Cb\u003EIsolated and Un-engaging \u003C\/b\u003EGoogle+ Posts \u003Cb\u003EDo Not \u003C\/b\u003EDrive Ranking.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/u\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E...then I would have to agree, as results were quite similar to the common pattern of unengaging posts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have previously mentioned other flaws in said test (including irrelevant titles \u0026amp; orphaned test pages), but which I currently do not believe would have caused quite as poor a showing if at least the posts had received a good level of on platform authority reshares \u0026amp; user engagement.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"3\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E3. In search of the Google+ post authority source.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESo where do individual G+ posts get most of their ranking authority from if not from the initial high authority profiles they are posted on?\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIs there observable evidence that shows varied authority levels received by G+ posts?\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHow do we prove Google+ posts on the same profile receive diverse levels of authority?\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWhat is particularly different on G+ posts that retain high authority \u0026amp; eventually show TBPR? \u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ECourtesy of the 12\/13 PageRank update, we can now go back \u0026amp; find out what authority scores Google assigned to some of the past Google+ posts,\u003C\/b\u003E and see specifically how some of the different types of posts fared.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENow this data was not nearly as easy to find as you might imagine, courtesy of several major changes in Google Plus. \u003C\/b\u003EThe first, as I mentioned in part 1 of this series, most G+ profiles \u0026amp; pages received new custom URLs prior to the last PR Toolbar 1213 update and therefore none of their posts show any PR. Secondly, sometime recently all of the canonical URL's were changed from a standard of still using the profile number, like this...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cpre id=\"line1\"\u003E\u0026lt;\u003Cspan class=\"start-tag\"\u003Elink\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan class=\"attribute-name\"\u003Erel\u003C\/span\u003E=\"\u003Ca class=\"attribute-value\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/null\"\u003Ecanonical\u003C\/a\u003E\" \u003Cspan class=\"attribute-name\"\u003Ehref\u003C\/span\u003E=\"\u003Ca class=\"attribute-value\" href=\"view-source:https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+JoshuaBerg\"\u003Ehttps:\/\/plus.google.com\/110133760398936676625\u003C\/a\u003E\"\u0026gt;\u003C\/pre\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003Eto instead showing the custom URL as the canonical, like this...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cpre id=\"line1\"\u003E\u003C\/pre\u003E\u003Cpre id=\"line1\"\u003E\u0026lt;\u003Cspan class=\"start-tag\"\u003Elink\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan class=\"attribute-name\"\u003Erel\u003C\/span\u003E=\"\u003Ca class=\"attribute-value\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/null\"\u003Ecanonical\u003C\/a\u003E\" \u003Cspan class=\"attribute-name\"\u003Ehref\u003C\/span\u003E=\"\u003Ca class=\"attribute-value\" href=\"view-source:https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+JoshuaBerg\"\u003Ehttps:\/\/plus.google.com\/+JoshuaBerg\u003C\/a\u003E\"\u0026gt;\u003C\/pre\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis appears to have affected a large number of posts showing TBPR. So until the next PR Toolbar update (yes, they will continue), we're not able to numerically observe a majority of the PR authority that's been distributed on the Google+ platform.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have however found that some G+ profiles with high authority that received custom URLs at a very early stage, do show a significant amount of PR Toolbar rankings on their older posts, for which we have to go back before the first week of September 2013 to view them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt turns out the popular \u003Ca class=\"g-profile\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/113217924531763968801\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E+Danny Sullivan\u003C\/a\u003E profile has a good deal of observable data on last year's posts. While I have analyzed and observed hundreds of different posts and profiles with mostly similar patterns (and a few anomalies), for now we will stick with the data on this specific profile.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-FeCFDivqDFU\/Uxhb0bb1aHI\/AAAAAAAAHBs\/7dUG8dIKjMQ\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-dannys-pagerank-posts.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-FeCFDivqDFU\/Uxhb0bb1aHI\/AAAAAAAAHBs\/7dUG8dIKjMQ\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-dannys-pagerank-posts.png\" height=\"480\" width=\"640\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EComplete spreadsheet at \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0AuALB-c5A_3vdDlrRlI5d2xCTWxrUDVZTFZiMlFscnc\u0026amp;usp=sharing\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003EGoogle Plus Post Ranks In-depth Analysis - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo what can we see from the above \u0026amp; related data? G+ posts that receive a significant amount of direct engagement (mostly direct shares), especially from high authority profiles, eventually retain good amounts of authority \u0026amp; may later end up showing TBPR.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn the other hand, analysis of hundreds of posts that did not retain notable authority after a significant period of time, shows that on average they have less cross engagement from other G+ users.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EEspecially notable though, is that no matter how much PR authority a profile has, its posts will *never receive enough authority to show TBPR if there are no reshares \u0026amp; engagement from other G+ users.\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003E[*an exception to this would be the top posts on a frozen profile stream as mentioned above.]\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe following is also observable in lower authority G+ posts... \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EGoogle+ posts that receive no authority reshares eventually retain comparatively low authority.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EEven high authority shares eventually retain little authority without sufficient engagement.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EInitial shares on a G+ profile homepage, closely mirror authority of the profile's own tabs.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EVery important to note, \u003Cb\u003Ethe PR0 is actually blank (N\/A) \u0026amp; does not mean absolutely no PR.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EPR blank (N\/A) only means there were not enough back links to reach a TBPR of 1.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-t5Ei2bXUVZ0\/Uxhr6QI4eaI\/AAAAAAAAHB8\/em6x3gwtMgw\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-dannys-low-authority-posts.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-t5Ei2bXUVZ0\/Uxhr6QI4eaI\/AAAAAAAAHB8\/em6x3gwtMgw\/s1600\/google-plus-seo-4-dannys-low-authority-posts.png\" height=\"478\" width=\"640\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EComplete spreadsheet at \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0AuALB-c5A_3vdDlrRlI5d2xCTWxrUDVZTFZiMlFscnc\u0026amp;usp=sharing\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003EGoogle Plus Post Ranks In-depth Analysis - by Joshua Berg\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 id=\"4\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: Georgia,\u0026quot;Times New Roman\u0026quot;,serif;\"\u003E4. G+ rocket booster gets pages seen, but then pages must carry it.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EIn conclusion, what search ranking benefits can we get from posting on Google+? \u003C\/b\u003EWhat is the point of trying to collect PR from follow hyperlinks in the G+ stream if it is continuously being diluted by the regular stream of new content?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn my opinion this is another reason why John Mueller's caution is good advice, which I wrote about in, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/01\/missing-gplus-pagerank-google-plus-seo3.html#5\"\u003EJohn Mueller speaks out - on not using G+ just to build PageRank\u003C\/a\u003E that...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003ESo I think if you're using Google Plus as a way of link building to  try to drive PageRank to your site, you're probably doing it wrong. So  that's not something where I'd focus on anything like PageRank, but  instead use Google Plus to kind of engage with your audience \u0026amp; make  sure that you're doing the right thing on your website, see what people  are interested in \u0026amp; see what you could be improving on your website. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EAnd I wouldn't use that as a way to kind of drive PageRank to your site.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe biggest theme I want to express through this series is that, the power of Google+ is all about the people.\u003C\/b\u003E Which is why I started this series with, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/01\/google-plus-authority-from-social-seo.html\"\u003EGoogle Plus Authority is Powered by People - G+ SEO 2014 ①\u003C\/a\u003E. As John Mueller goes on to say...\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #cc0000;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EI'd really try to use Google Plus more as a way to engage with people  and to interact with them, share your content, see how people react to  it \u0026amp; think about ways that you could improve your content together.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThat said, there are other more important ranking benefits to be received which are not yet well covered and which we will see more of as the Google+ platform matures. \u003Cb\u003EGoogle+ and its relative, Google Authorship, were specifically structured so that authority from authors' content would flow into their profiles \u0026amp; not by default away from.\u003C\/b\u003E There are significant reasons for that which will become clearer as we continue this story. This is both how and why Google Authorship was setup and the benefits to be seen from this are only just beginning to be understood and I'll have more on this soon.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat I have seen that is particularly advantageous about using G+ to promote high quality \u0026amp; engaging website pages and blogs is that, \u003Cb\u003Ea popular post can become a real rocket booster for your blog or webpage,\u003C\/b\u003E pushing it up quickly in the Google's search results where it can start to gather other confirmatory ranking signals, such as CTR and other positive patterns in user behavior.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFrom there it is up to the quality and interest of your content, as to whether it will continue to receive other positive affirmations from the wider web. Positive citations from other peers for example, would typically be a next step that we would see in the continuing footprint of quality content.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/feeds\/3917823406484863638\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/3759980671192386261\/posts\/default\/3917823406484863638"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/3759980671192386261\/posts\/default\/3917823406484863638"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.realsmo.com\/2014\/03\/how-google-plus-seo-affects-search-rank.html","title":"How Google Plus SEO Affects Posts \u0026 Search Rank - G+ SEO 2014 ④"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Joshua Berg"},"uri":{"$t":"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/110133760398936676625"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-kcGW80--2bk\/AAAAAAAAAAI\/AAAAAAAAK9g\/KAgVF8x-5dA\/s512-c\/photo.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1ik7I8sZlss\/UxshyyfpEAI\/AAAAAAAAHEM\/_-USExEvGA8\/s72-c\/google-plus-seo-4logo.gif","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"},"gd$extendedProperty":[{"name":"commentSource","value":"1"},{"name":"commentModerationMode","value":"FILTERED_POSTMOD"}]}]}});