PageRank was the algorithm named after Larry Page that helped rank Google’s early search results.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed the method while they were graduate students at Stanford University. PageRank treated links as signals of importance: a page linked to by many important pages could receive a higher ranking than a page with fewer or weaker links.
The name is a wordplay on both Larry Page’s surname and the idea of ranking web pages. The method drew inspiration from academic citation analysis, where references can indicate the influence of a paper.
PageRank was central to Google’s early advantage, but modern Google Search uses many systems and signals. It is therefore inaccurate to describe PageRank as the only factor determining current rankings. Google also retired the public PageRank toolbar score, even though link analysis remains part of search technology.