Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards ranking electronic documents in sub-linear time complexity. An advertising provider may perform such a ranking in order to identify one or more electronic document to advertise a product or service. A ranking mechanism may execute a number of random walks around the Internet by navigating the electronic documents via embedded links from a starting document and an ending document that are within a pre-determined distance. After finishing the random walks, an estimate of rank contribution information associated with each electronic document is provided. The estimated rank contribution information is used to determine an exposure level with respect to a network for one or more of the electronic documents. The exposure value of an example electronic document may correspond to a ranking value that may be computed using a sample of the rank contribution information related to that document.