The internet we all know and use today has certainly changed a lot from its humble beginnings, back in the 1960’s. Google is a company that has made great strides in enabling people to sift through a large amount of data on the vast internet. During its recent Search On livestream, the company announced a host of new changes it’s making to Search, along with some new helpful features. Here’s a quick rundown.
Using AI to better Search, correct spelling errors and more
Google listed a whole lot of improvements that it is making to Search but there are some notable ones that stand out. Search is now almost completely using BERT or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). BERT was developed by Google as a technique for natural language processing (NLP) pre-training for bettering search results.
Additionally, the company’s latest research in AI has enabled it to better understand misspelled words. As per Google, one in 10 search queries every day are misspelled and the company is now introducing a new spelling algorithm. This new algorithm makes use of a deep neural net to improve misspellings detection by helping Google understand the context of misspelled words. This way it can help you find the right results in under 3 milliseconds.
Google Search is also getting some upgrades that come into play when one searches for specific topics. In depth scrounging of web pages is now better, which makes it easier for finding the answer to a user’s specific query. Google says that alongside web pages indexing, it is now able to index individual passages from the pages. The tech is claimed to improve 7 percent of search queries across all languages as it is rolled out globally. Google is also using neural nets to display subtopics better around a search query. This is expected to deliver better diversity for content when users search for something broad.
Helping people be safe during the pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic is something that has changed our lives forever. With contact tracing capabilities being built into the Android and iOS operating systems, it is clear that we need measures in place to help contain the pandemic’s spread. To further help people make smart decisions, Google will now show how busy a place is right now with the new live busyness update.
This is expected to help people decide when to visit an establishment so that social distancing is possible. There’s also a new feature to Live View, which will help people get essential information about a business before visiting. New COVID-19 safety information is being added to Business Profiles across Google Search and Maps. It will help you learn whether a business needs its patrons to wear a mask, make advance reservations and more.
Lens will now help with homework, and humm to find that song
Sometimes, simply searching via text is not enough. This is when other techniques to search come into play. Google offers voice and even the ability to search through a phone’s camera. During its Search On event, the company announced that the Lens service will now enable users to get step by step help while doing their homework. One simply needs to use the Lens from the search bar of the Google app on Android or iOS.
Google Lens can now also help users search for apparels or something else in a photo, to shop for it online. Additionally, if you want to buy a car, going to the showroom might not be the best option right now. Considering this, Google is enabling new Augmented Reality features that will let users check out some car models right from home. This feature is currently being experimented in the US with auto brands, such as Volvo and Porsche.
Ever had a song or tune stuck in your head but you can’t remember it? Well, Google is rolling out a new hum to search feature. It works exactly as it sounds. One simply needs to hum the melody to the audio option in the Google Search widget and hum for 10-15 seconds. You can do the same while using Google Assistant by opening the voice assistant and asking “Hey Google, what’s this song?” and then humming the tune. It will then automatically search for the nearest song match. The hum to search option is currently available in English on iOS, and in more than 20 languages on Android.
Image credits: Google
