The winner takes all, it is widely supposed in computing circles. Indeed, geeks have coined a word, "Googlearchy", for the way in which search engines encourage web traffic towards the most popular sites. (46)
The belief that search engines make popular websites ever more popular, at the expense of other pages, is now being challenged by research.
(47)
The apparently magical ability of search engines such as Google to return relevant websites even when given the sketchiest of clues by the person entering a query relies on the use of mathematical recipes or algorithms.
Google works by analyzing the structure of the web itself. Each of its billions of pages can link to other pages and can also, in turn, be linked to by others. Furthermore, if the pages that link to this page are also important, then that page is even more likely to be important. (48)
The algorithm has been made increasingly complex over the years, to deter those who would manipulate their pages to appear higher in the rankings, but it remains at the heart of Google"s success.
Google is not alone in this. Many search engines take account of the number of links to a web site when they return the results of a search. (49)
Because of this, there is a widespread belief among computer, social and political scientists that search engines create a vicious circle that amplifies the dominance of established and already popular websites.
Pages returned by search engines are more likely to be discovered and consequently linked to by others.
Not so, according to a controversial new paper that has recently appeared on arXiv, an online collection of physics and related papers. In it, Santo Fortunato and his colleagues at Indiana University in America and Bielefeld University in Germany claim that search engines actually have an egalitarian effect that increases traffic to less popular sites.
The researchers developed a model that described two extreme cases. In the first, people browsed the web only by surfing random links. In the second, people only visited pages that were re turned by search engines. The researchers then turned to the real world. They plotted the traffic to a website—measured as the fraction of all page views made in a three-month period—against the number of incoming links made to that website. (50)
To their surprise, they found that the relationship between the two did not lie between the extremes suggested by their model but somewhere completely different.
It appears to show that the supposed bias in favour of popular pages is actually mitigated by the combination of search engines and people following random links.
【答案解析】解析：本句为主从复合句，主干结构是The belief is now being challenged。句中that引导belief的同位语从句。句中的同位语从句不算很长，无需断句处理，直接变成定语即可。此外，注意将被动语态转成主动译出，is challenged译为"受到质疑"，这更符合汉语表达习惯。句中的research在翻译时应该具体化，这里是指"研究者"。
【答案解析】解析：本句为简单句，主干结构是The ability to return relevant websites relies on the use。such as Google是修饰search engines的定语；不定式短语to return relevant websites是ability的定语。when give the sketchiest of clues是句子的时间状语；分词短语entering a query是person的后置定语。本句虽然是简单句，但句子较长，中间的修饰成分较多，因此需要将各部分关系整理清楚，翻译时注意语序调整、词义引申和具体化。sketchy原意为"粗略的，大体的"，因为此处是介绍搜索引擎的功能，需将词义引申为"模糊的"。when前面出现了even一词，翻译时将时间状语转化为让步关系的状语，这样可将even的意思翻译出来。enter意指"进入"，此处是指查询内容，应具体译成"输入"。
【答案解析】解析：本句为并列复合句，主干结构是The algorithm has been made complex，but it remains at the，heart。不定式短语to deter those...是目的状语。who would manipulate their pages to appear higher in the rankings是those的定语从句。翻译时，注意词义的灵活处理。句中manipulate their pages原意为"操纵网页"，因为这里提到的方法不是让排名靠前的唯一方法，可见作者提到manipulate their pages的目的是指广义上的"技术手段"。
【答案解析】解析：本句为主从复合句，主干结构为there be句型：there is a widespread belief。that search engines create a vicious circle…是belief的同位语从句；that amplifies the dominance of established and already popular web sites是circle的定语从句。翻译时注意词性转换和定语从句的处理。belief原句为名词，为了将诸多领域的科学家作为主语译出，需要将belief转成动词"认为"。此外，由于定语从句较长，需进行断句处理，根据语义特点，转成解释恶性循环的同位结构译出即可。
【答案解析】解析：本句为主从复合句，主干结构是they found that。that后为宾语从句，其中the relationship did not lie为从句的主语和谓语。suggested by their model为后置定语。翻译时注意使用增词法。句中but后省略了前面的谓语lie，翻译时需要添加完整，将"存在"译出。