Google has a patent on pagerank? If their algorithm was patented, it would be op... | Hacker News

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		dedward on June 30, 2012 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexu... Google has a patent on pagerank? If their algorithm was patented, it would be open for anyone to read and understand - just not to use. My understanding is their ranking is something they keep a closely guarded secret, and to apply for a patent on it would be silly. Or was pagerank something they did early on and I'm mixing up two things.

JoeCortopassi on June 30, 2012 [–]

You got it mixed up. They built Google on the (patented) PageRank algorithm, but have since improved upon it to such a degree that the what they currently use bears little resemblance.

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