1. A method of processing information related to documents in a collection of linked documents, the method comprising: quantizing by a data-processing system, for each respective document in all or a portion of said collection, an auxiliary page ranking vector associated with the respective document, wherein each said auxiliary page ranking vector comprises a plurality of attributes, and wherein each attribute is quantized in an independent manner, and wherein said quantizing uses a first quantizer to quantize values for a first attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection, and wherein the values x for said first attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection are distributed in a power-law distribution m, and wherein the values x are transformed with a first function F 1 (x) such that the transformed values become uniformly distributed, and wherein said first quantizer partitions the plurality of transformed first values into a plurality of uniformly spaced cells; receiving by the data-processing system a search query comprising one or more search terms; identifying by the data-processing system, using a document index that represents said collection of linked documents, a plurality of documents, wherein each document in said identified plurality of documents includes at least one term that matches a search term in said search query; and ranking by the data-processing system said plurality of documents using said auxiliary page vectors, wherein said ranking comprises: (i) ranking by the data-processing system, for each respective attribute in said plurality of attributes, said plurality of documents to form an intermediate rank order, and (ii) aggregating by the data-processing system each said intermediate rank order to generate a final rank order for said plurality of documents; wherein F 1 ⁡ ( x ) = k y - 1 ⁢ ( x min - ( m - 1 ) - x - ( m - 1 ) ) , y is a second attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection, x min is the minimum possible rank for x, and k is a normalization constant.
1. A method of processing information related to documents in a collection of linked documents, the method comprising: quantizing by a data-processing system, for each respective document in all or a portion of said collection, an auxiliary page ranking vector associated with the respective document, wherein each said auxiliary page ranking vector comprises a plurality of attributes, and wherein each attribute is quantized in an independent manner, and wherein said quantizing uses a first quantizer to quantize values for a first attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection, and wherein the values x for said first attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection are distributed in a power-law distribution m, and wherein the values x are transformed with a first function F 1 (x) such that the transformed values become uniformly distributed, and wherein said first quantizer partitions the plurality of transformed first values into a plurality of uniformly spaced cells; receiving by the data-processing system a search query comprising one or more search terms; identifying by the data-processing system, using a document index that represents said collection of linked documents, a plurality of documents, wherein each document in said identified plurality of documents includes at least one term that matches a search term in said search query; and ranking by the data-processing system said plurality of documents using said auxiliary page vectors, wherein said ranking comprises: (i) ranking by the data-processing system, for each respective attribute in said plurality of attributes, said plurality of documents to form an intermediate rank order, and (ii) aggregating by the data-processing system each said intermediate rank order to generate a final rank order for said plurality of documents; wherein F 1 ⁡ ( x ) = k y - 1 ⁢ ( x min - ( m - 1 ) - x - ( m - 1 ) ) , y is a second attribute in the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with said collection, x min is the minimum possible rank for x, and k is a normalization constant. 5. The method of claim 1 wherein F 1 (x)=kx −m and k is a normalization constant.