SEARCH ENGINE AND LINK-BASED RANKING ALGORITHM FOR THE SEMANTIC WEB

A dataset ranking procedure for use in a hyperdata search engine is disclosed. A problem with known hyperdata search engines is they rank the datasets in a way that leads to prominence being given in search results to unimportant datasets. The hyperdata search engine disclosed here addresses this problem by giving extra credence to any dataset which includes the original definition of a resource which is referred to in a resource definition in another dataset. In this way, datasets which the authors of other datasets choose to refer to in their own resource definitions are given greater prominence in the results provided by a hyperdata search engine, providing a user with what he requires in order to more quickly find a dataset which provides useful information relating to his search query. In some embodiments, the reference to another dataset is found in a relationship statement including a subject, predicate and object, and the amount of extra credence given by virtue of the reference depends on the predicate found in the relationship statement. In refinements of those embodiments, the use of a more popular predicate in the relationship statements leads to the reference being given more weight.