Google relies on a complicated algorithm they call PageRank. While PageRank takes into account many factors like domain name, words on the page, and age of the site, its biggest component has to do with backlinks. Backlinks are incoming hyperlinks from other sites. Google figures that webpages that are linked to by other sites must be good, so the more backlinks, the higher PageRank score a site receives. The higher the PageRank, the higher on the search results a webpage will appear. Backlinks are so important to how Google sorts search results that before taking its current name, Google was known as BackRub.

Just because a webpage has many backlinks and is a top-ranked search result is not an endorsement that the site has reliable and accurate information. For instance, search for "octopus" and notice the third result.

That third result links to a page titled Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The page appears geared for young students and is full of science words like arboreal, coniferous, and cephalopod. It even has a photo of an octopus positioned in a tree. I bet you thought that an octopus could only survive in water. The page's first paragraph explains:

Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

Many Google users will assume that this information is accurate. After all, it was the third of nearly two million results. But reading down the page, you might notice that in a list of reasons given for the Tree Octopus' population decline is "booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch." Sasquatch? Isn't that another name for Bigfoot, which is a creature that hasn't been proven to exist? Despite linking to another page, Tree Octopus Protection Vs. Sasquatch Traditions, one starts to question the validity of the information. Scrolling down farther reveals a list of "Other Animals of Interest," none of which sound like they are real. A click over to the site's homepage, Zapatopi.net, clues readers into the joke: the site is full of hoaxes.

There are two lessons here. First, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Second, Google's search results do not mean that a site has reliable or accurate information. PageRank will produce results that are popular because they are linked to by other sites. Just because a site has lots of backlinks in no way means it is a good source of information.

In fact, by linking to the Tree Octopus page in this blog post, I've increased its PageRank, contributing to its top-ranked position in Google's search results.