1. A method performed by a computer, the method comprising: selecting, by the computer, a first document from a plurality of documents stored in a database; generating, by the computer, a rank for the first document using: R = α N + ( 1 - α ) ⁢ ( r ⁡ ( B 1 )  B 1  + … + r ⁡ ( B n )  B n  ) , where R refers to the rank for the first document, n refers to a value greater than or equal to one, B 1 , . . . , B n refer to one or more second documents, of the plurality of documents, that include a link that points to the first document, r(B 1 ), . . . , r(B n ) refer to ranks for the one or more second documents, |B 1 |, . . . , |B n | refer to a quantity of links that the one or more second documents include, α refers to a constant that is greater than zero and less than one, and N refers to a total quantity of the plurality of documents; and storing, by the computer, the rank for the first document.
1. A method performed by a computer, the method comprising: selecting, by the computer, a first document from a plurality of documents stored in a database; generating, by the computer, a rank for the first document using: R = α N + ( 1 - α ) ⁢ ( r ⁡ ( B 1 )  B 1  + … + r ⁡ ( B n )  B n  ) , where R refers to the rank for the first document, n refers to a value greater than or equal to one, B 1 , . . . , B n refer to one or more second documents, of the plurality of documents, that include a link that points to the first document, r(B 1 ), . . . , r(B n ) refer to ranks for the one or more second documents, |B 1 |, . . . , |B n | refer to a quantity of links that the one or more second documents include, α refers to a constant that is greater than zero and less than one, and N refers to a total quantity of the plurality of documents; and storing, by the computer, the rank for the first document. 10. The method of claim 1 , where a particular document, of the one or more second documents, includes a first link to the first document and a second link to a third document, the third document being different from the first document, the first link being associated with a first measure of importance within the particular document, the second link being associated with a second measure of importance within the first particular document, the first measure of importance being greater than the second measure of importance, where the method further comprises: assigning a first weight to the first link based on the first measure of importance; and assigning a second weight to the second link based on the second measure of importance, the first weight being greater than the second weight; where generating the rank for the first document includes: generating the rank for the first document based on the first weight.