Google has revamped
its search engine in an attempt to offer instant answers to search questions. A new function, the Knowledge Graph, will make
the site's algorithms act "more human", the site said in a blog post. The feature will at first be available to
US-based users, but will be rolled out globally in due course. It follows
similar efforts by rival Bing to provide added search content beyond the
typical list of links. Microsoft's search engine launched its
"snapshot" column last week as part of a wider site redesign. Google's
senior vice president of engineering Amit Singhal explained that, until now,
the search engine was only able match keywords, rather than understand context.
Mr Singhal said the words "Taj Mahal" could mean different things to
different people. "You might think of one of the world's most beautiful
monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in
Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian
restaurant," he said.
Key information
Google said the
Knowledge Graph has been programmed to use around 3.5 billion different
attributes to organise results meaning it can now group results according to
those various alternative interpretations.For some searches, such as on
prominent people, Google will automatically pull up a summary box with key
information on that topic. The next step, Mr Singhal said, is to look at how
the site can answer more complex questions, such as "What are the 10
deepest lakes in Africa?" In doing so the search engine would need to draw
on multiple sources and factor in many different criteria. This kind of
computational, intelligent search is currently pioneered by the likes of
Wolfram Alpha - a site which gathers verified data, such as from the World
Health Organization, to provide statistical results. It has long been a
technological goal to produce search engines that could react entirely
naturally to human-like queries. One such effort includes the somewhat iconic
search engine Ask Jeeves, where users can ask a stereotypically English butler
for help.
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