By: Aseem Gaurav on May 17, 2012
Google will soon introduce a new tool, which has been designed to make its search engine smarter.
The new redesign will include a new search process called "knowledge graph" – which will deliver context-sensitive information about the searched keyword – displayed in boxes to the right of the main search results.
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In other words, the new feature will simplify the search queries of the users, especially those which are ambiguous, to indicate what exactly they intend to know about.
For instance, a user searching for ‘Taj Mahal’ might be asked to choose between the monument, a musician, an Indian restaurant or a casino. The new search tool will bring up a range of options in the right-hand sidebar, to help users provide the answer as quickly and concisely as possible.
Also, say you have searched for The White Tiger, the debut novel by Aravind Adiga, which won the prestigious Man Booker Prize, the knowledge graph will also show three other books that had won the same prize and one that won the Pulitzer.
“The redesign, which for now affects only U.S.-based English language users, will be extended to a wider audience,” said Amit Singhal, vice president of engineering at Google and the head of search. He added the results will contain graphical elements, such as maps and pictures of related results, in separate pop-ups.
Earlier, this week, the Internet search giant said its knowledge base has grown to 500 million entities at present, with 3.5 billion attributes of and connections between those entities. According to comScore, Google holds numero uno position in the US market, occupying a massive 66 per cent share. However, many see it as an attempt to thwart any competition from sites like Facebook. Interestingly, Google’s knowledge graph release will come just a week after Microsoft Corp.’s Bing, announced an overhaul that will highlight more information taken from Facebook.
The biggest advantage that a user will get as a result of this new tool is that they don’t have to leave Google’s pages, as earlier one has to go to a site like Wikipedia to search for the information. Further, this will also result in more traffic generated to Wikipedia, as it will be prominently linked to in the summary boxes.
According to Singhal, “the new tool will give you a more complete picture of your interest, provide smarter search results, and pique your curiosity on new topics.”
Do send in your comments about what you think about this new tool.
