Google Suggest updating quicker than ever now
Following the revelations from Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, at TechCrunch Disrupt last week that the future of search is edging towards a “Serendipity Engine”, it is clear that we are moving down a slippery slope of pure and utter reliance on technology.
Gone are the days of spending ten minutes trying to direct someone to a pub or shopping centre thanks to Google maps and gone are the days of walking around Tesco’s doing the weekly shop thanks to online shopping apps and services. We may not be quite there at the “Serendipity Engine” that Schmidt spoke about, however recent developments in Google for streaming search (Instant) and an improved Google suggest functionality indicates that we are heading towards a world where search engines ‘predict’ what we will are searching for and another step towards personalisation.
Some of you may have noticed that in the past few weeks, Google suggest has been updating quicker than ever – with extremely recent events being included within the drop down suggestion box. Could this be an additional part of Google Instant or is Google Caffeine now flexing its infrastructural muscle? Lets look at some examples.
I’m sure you were saddened by the death of comic Sir Norman Wisdom, who died aged 95 two days ago. As you can imagine, many searchers were trying to find out information on the legendary comedian using terminology such as ‘Norman Wisdom Died’ and ‘Norman Wisdom Films’ – both of which are now included within Google suggest:
If we take a look at an even more recent event, such as Liverpool Football Club’s proposed sale to the owner of Boston Red Sox (John W Henry), you can clearly see that searchers are trying to find out who owns the Boston Red Sox:
So have you noticed Google suggests options just got that little more relevant to current events? Google is obviously using data from searches to populate and update the suggest box much quicker than before but this of course can have a negative effect on some current events/cases.
Google suggest has always been a very useful tool for me personally, more so than Google instant will ever be. The fact that the keyword range just got that little more relevant and up to date is superb for all types of searchers. We may be a little way off cars driving humans (as Schmidt suggested) but there is no doubt that the improvements in Google suggest will aid users the world over.