To randomize or not to randomize: space optimal summaries for hyperlink analysis

Personalized PageRank expresses link-based page quality around user selected pages. The only previous personalized PageRank algorithm that can serve on-line queries for an unrestricted choice of pages on large graphs is our Monte Carlo algorithm [WAW 2004]. In this paper we achieve unrestricted personalization by combining rounding and randomized sketching techniques in the dynamic programming algorithm of Jeh and Widom [WWW 2003]. We evaluate the precision of approximation experimentally on large scale real-world data and find significant improvement over previous results. As a key theoretical contribution we show that our algorithms use an optimal amount of space by also improving earlier asymptotic worst-case lower bounds. Our lower bounds and algorithms apply to the SimRank as well; of independent interest is the reduction of the SimRank computation to personalized PageRank.