Not exactly, but that is what goes on behind the scenes (via Matt Linderman) of the most visited site. One would think that one of the most valuable machines in the world would not be fiddled with everyday. It would be frozen – what works keeps working! However, Amit Singhal and Udi Manber of search quality reveal that the algorithm is continuously tweaked and fine-tuned on. All this to maintain diversity, one of the least expected qualities, of search results.
The challenge is to maintain the balance of the quality of search results through relevancy and diversity. It uses a Query Deserves Freshness (QDF), a mathematical model, to determine when users want fresh information.
A very interesting article to read, the most that you would know from the inside. One thing to take away from this is to expect your machine to be tweaked and modified if it is going to deal with the real world. As the dynamics change, it will have to adapt and keep improving itself to incorporate them.
