Readable background articles on the size of the web etc. Search sites' shocking secret ZDnet 17 August 1998. Lost in cyberspace. . New Scientist June 28, 1997. Hypersearching the Web Scientific American June 1999.
Web links do confer authority'.
Talks about their own Clever project, and Google search, which works on similar principles. The challenges of search engines, Searching with hyperlinks, the link to citation analysis. Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles. Accessibility of Information on the Web. 400, July 8, 1999.