Google at 15 Introduces a New Search Algorithm Fall2013
Google at 15 Introduces a
New Search Algorithm
“Better ranked results for longer queries”
Fall2013
How Google Search Has Changed Over the Years
2001, adds “did you mean”
2002, handles synonyms
2004, added news & stock quotes
2005, added Autocomplete
2006, added video, weather, flights
2007, added movie times & patents
2008, Google search mobile app
2009, voice search
2010, Google Instant
2011, added image search
2012, added knowledge graph
Hummingbird
• Google has updated its core query analysis algorithm, called Hummingbird
• impetus for the change was that as more people speak searches into phones, they’re doing so in a more natural way than they type in queries
• “Conversational search” is one of the biggest improvements, e.g.
• “What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s to my home?”
• A traditional search engine might focus on finding matches for words — finding a page that says “buy” and “iPhone 5s,” for example.
• Instead Hummingbird focuses on the meaning behind the words.
• It will understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with
Google.
• It will understand that “place” means you want a brick-and-mortar store.
• It might get that “iPhone 5s” is a particular type of electronic device carried by certain stores.
Google’s Knowledge Graph
• Hummingbird relies upon Google’s Knowledge Graph
• It enables someone to search for things, people or places that Google knows and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query.
• It currently contains more than 500 million objects, as well as more than 3.5 billion facts about and relationships between these different objects.
• See the video at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html
Major Moves by Google Over the Years
Sept, 1998, founded by Page & Brin
July, 2000, world’s largest search engine
July, 2001, Image search is started
Feb, 2003, Google buys blogger
Mar, 2004, Google launches Gmail
June, 2005, Google launches Google Earth,
Google Maps, Google Talk, Google Videos
July, 2005, Google purchases Android
Oct, 2006, Google buys YouTube
Sept, 2008, Google launches Chrome
July, 2009, Google launches Chrome OS for
Netbooks
July, 2010, Google releases first Android smartphone, Nexus One
August, 2011, Google buys Motorola
Mobility
June, 2012, Google introduces a tablet,
Nexus 7 and Google Glass
June, 2013, Google buys waze for mapping/navigation
