A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

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Query request and results serving. The familiar search engine interface accepts the 

searcher’s query. The user’s location is assessed through their IP address and the query is 

then passed to a relevant data centre for processing. Ranking then occurs in real time for a 

particular query to return a sorted list of relevant documents and these are then displayed 

on the search results page.

Google has stated that it uses more than 200 factors or signals within its search ranking algo-

rithms. These include positive ranking factors which help boost position and negative factors 

or filters which are used to remove search engine spam from the index. (Further details (on 

ranking factors) can be found in Box 12.2, p. 605.)