A logical directory ranking system ranks documents or web pages utilizing
logical directories. The present system groups together compound
documents as a single information node with one or more leaves,
constructing a logical directory graph. URLs can be grouped at a level of
granularity below an individual directory. For example, the URLs may be
grouped together on the basis of hostname, domain, or any level of the
hierarchy of the URLs. Edges in the logical directory graph are formed by
links between the logical directories. Edges have weights corresponding
to the number of links between logical directories. Nodes have weights
corresponding to the number of web pages or leaves represented by a node.
A ranking level is determined for each node as a function of the node
weight and the edge weight. The ranking level is then applied to each URL
that the node represents.