Google additions improve search performance

by Stevie Smith - Mar 25 2009, 16:30

Always looking to increase the worth of its market-leading search engine, Google Inc. has introduced a selection of new features designed to improve effectiveness and deliver more descriptive information on listed results.

The first enhancement sees Google deploying a new technology meant to better understand “associations and concepts” connected to the searches input by its users; the direct result of this being that even more useful related search results are returned separately at both the top and bottom of the Google results page.

In outlining an example of the improved scope in action, Google’s Ori Allon and Ken Wilder explain that if a user searches for “principles of physics,” special algorithms apply related terms such as “special relativity”, “angular momentum”, “big bang”, and “quantum mechanic” in order to increase overall efficiency.

And, in a move to extend the insight provided by its search results, Google is also increasing the length of its listed “snippets”, which are the brief worded samples supplied beneath each dark blue result link on the page.

“When you enter a longer [more detailed] query, with more than three words, regular length snippets may not give you enough information and context,” said Google in its official blog. “In these situations, we now increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information and show more of the words you typed in the context of the page.”

While both improvements may go largely unnoticed by the Google masses, the California-based heavyweight maintains that plenty of other additions are in the offing in order to ensure that Google always leads when it comes to search experience.

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