Google’s VisualRank can Change PageRank

Search engines use different tools to analyze web sites’ activity by recording clicks, bounce rates and returned visitors (just to name a few). Through recording all of this information, search engines like Google developed what is known as PageRank. Search engines themselves also continue to evolve with the development of the blended search, allowing users to search for not only web pages, but also images, videos, blogs, news articles and product searches. However, there is currently no way to track images and how they affect PageRank.

Google has proposed a new innovative tool, VisuaRank, which is said to work the same way as PageRank. VisualRank is supposed to take ranking one step further by analyzing not only the text on an image’s tag, but it also reads visual cues to determine the rank of the image (e.g., relevancy to the searched keyword). While the tool is still in development, Google has struggled with the difficulties of image analysis through computers. Nevertheless, Google continues to work on solutions to the problem, and VisualRank’s potential success will definitely change the way in which images affect PageRank.