Google revamps search engine to think like a person

Google's new search powers are encapsulated in what the company calls a Knowledge Graph, in which the new algorithms attempt to understand exactly what people are looking for and present basicanswers on the results page, without users needing to click on any secondary links.

 

"We've always believed that the perfect search engine should understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what youwant," blogged Amit Singhal, Google's senior vice president of engineering. "And we can now sometimes help answer your next question before you've asked it, because the facts we show are informed by what other people have searched for."   Using what Singhl called the "collective intelligence of the web,"the Knowledge Graph shows results for Tom Cruise, for example, that manage to answer 37 per cent of the next questions that people usually ask.

 

"This used to be the stuff of dreams because we didn't really knowhow to accomplish it," Singhal said. "The dream has always been to understand things like you and I do, so this really feels like a seachange."   The new information will be contained in a special panel next tothe traditional search results, Google said, and will be rolled out to users in the United States in the coming days before going international.//DPA