Comment by firefax

The algorithm that powers Google Search is called Pagerank -- it gives weight to sites linked to by big sites.

Without that reputation data, you have to fall back to the style of searching we did in the 90s: using operators like AND or NOT, negation (Eg "Star Wars -jedi" for information about the missile defense program).

I'm not a Google fan but their search is good in the sense it accurately and quickly returns your results.