when I google for a person a lot of items come up, they are not according to date, i.e. latest to oldest or oldest to latest.

 

sometimes the items change in ranking.

 

how does Google determine what items should appear say on the first page or on later pages?

 

sometimes I find that the items in the later pages, sometimes even the last page contain more interesting and up-to-date material.

 

friends also tell me that items that are gossipy or negative blogs about them usually appear way up, often on the first page, when their names are googled.

 

who controls this kind of ranking of content?