21 January, 2013

Google and the future of search: Amit Singhal and the Knowledge Graph | Technology | The Observer

Google and the future of search: Amit Singhal and the Knowledge Graph | Technology | The Observer: Presumably we have got more precise in our search terms the more we have used Google?

He sighs, somewhat wearily. "Actually," he says, "it works the other way. The more accurate the machine gets, the lazier the questions become. So actually our lives get harder." He had to work especially hard to correct and understand spelling errors and analyse synonyms. And all along the dream has been the old Star Trek one of providing the right answer to what you think you want to know even if you don't know quite how to phrase the question. To work like a mind works, in other words. "The end game of this is we want to make it as natural as possible a thought process," he says. "We are maniacally focusing on the user to reduce every possible friction point between them, their thoughts and the information they want to find." Getting ever closer to Page's brain implants, in effect.