Algorithm

What is an algorithm? An algorithm is a combination of both computer science and mathematics. A process that achieves a task from an initial state, an algorithm produces an answer after it has run for a finite number of steps (terminates).

The term, algorithm has a surprisingly long history as it is derived from the word 'algorism' from 9th century mathematician Abu Abdullah Muhamad bin Musa al-Khwarismi. During that time, an algorithm applied to Hindu-Arabic arithmetic.

Through its detailed history, an algorithm, said to have been written (in 1842) by Countess Ada Byron for her conceptual analytical engine. This, by all means, would make Countess Byron the world's inventor of analytical programming.

Of course, technology has changed tremendously since 1842. Thus, algorithms are vital components to how modern day computers are able to process information. Today's computer programmers write specific algorithms to accommodate focused necessities. Algorithms may be confined to computer processes that will imminently complete themselves. Other algorithms have been written so that processes continue to run infinitely without stopping.

Consisting of four measures, an algorithm includes: zero of more inputs; one or more outputs; finiteness or computability; and/or definitiveness or preciseness. As a computer program implementation, an algorithm uses a unique process of finding the largest number in a haphazard list of numbers.

Classifying algorithms delves deeper into technical terminology but includes: Divide and Conquer Algorithm (Breakdown of complex cases into simplified cases); Dynamic Programming; Search Algorithms (and others).

In a search algorithm, items that are taken into consideration are web page properties, such as content text, headings, titles, keyword distribution and incoming links. In the Google algorithm, for example, it initially uses a text matching system that helps to match relevant pages. Additionally, after its algorithm is completed, Google then assigns its all-important PageRank(TM). In this sense, their algorithm lends much weight to title tags with regard to keywords.

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