Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:00 AM PDT We spend a lot of time thinking about search results, but we also spend a lot of time thinking about search queries. Today we're announcing three enhancements to help you input your searches more quickly and easily: more localized Google Suggest, improved spell correction for names and auto-correction for 31 languages. Feel at home with Google Suggest Last year we launched localized Google Suggest by country, offering relevant popular search queries tailored for different regions. However, just as people in the U.K. often look for different things than people in U.S., we've found that people in Seattle tend to look for different things than people in Dallas. So last week, we rolled out a version of Google Suggest that is tailored to specific metro areas in the U.S. You may notice that the list of queries beneath the search box will seem more locally relevant than it used to:
 Spelling enhancements for names While Suggest can help you find good queries, sometimes you can get stuck because of misspellings. That's why for years we've offered corrected spellings for mistyped searches (with the "Did you mean" link). We've steadily improved this spelling technology over time, but recently we made some big strides in correcting misspelled names. People often search for people's names — and not just celebrities and old friends. They look for doctors, horse trainers, hang-gliding instructors... the searches are just as diverse as the personalities in your hometown. We've noticed that people sometimes struggle to correctly spell names, and it's not surprising. Names can be complicated and often there are multiple common spellings. Our new technology is based on the concept that people often know something else about the person besides the approximate spelling of his name. People often include other terms such as "composer" or "lawyer sparta wisconsin" in their search query, which provides valuable context to help us narrow the range of possibilities for the spelling correction. We use these additional descriptive words to offer you better suggestions. Some examples: [matthew devin oracle], [yuri lehner stanford], [simon tung machine learning]. With these improvements you'll start seeing more useful spell corrections for names. For now this enhancement is available in our English spelling system in the U.S. We'll be rolling out the change to other parts of the world and other languages in the coming months. Spelling auto-correction in 31 languages Another improvement we made recently to the spelling system is auto-correction. If you search for [aiprt], rather than showing you a link on your results page that says "Did you mean: airport" we'll take you straight to the results for the corrected search. We auto-correct when we're highly confident in our correction in order to get you the information you're looking for that much faster. In the past week we've expanded auto-correction to 31 languages across over 180 domains, with more to come. Did you make a typo while looking for [chocolate strawberries and cream] in Italian? The right word is so close you can taste it:  While saving you that unnecessary click, we make search that much faster.     |
Posted: 15 Apr 2010 07:25 PM PDT Today, leaders of the three largest British parties took part in the U.K's first live televised debate in the run up to the May 6 general election. Alastair Stewart of ITN hosted Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labour Party, Conservative Party leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg as they discussed domestic affairs before a Manchester T.V. studio audience. Nick Clegg, his Liberal Democrat Party, and its manifesto generated many queries as people searched for Lib Dems and Liberal Democrat manifesto 2010. Searches for David Cameron and the Conservatives beat out the well-known incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Labour, but the two parties' manifestos generated about the same number of searches. Many Brits sought to watch the debate, searching for ITV election debate and live political debate, while others sought real-time polling information with queries such as debate polls, leaders debate poll and who is winning the debate. Gordon Brown told David Cameron, "I'm grateful, by the way, David, for you putting up these posters about me and about crime and about everything else. You know, there's no newspaper editor done as much for me in the last two years, because my face is smiling on these posters, and I'm very grateful to you and Lord Ashcroft for funding that", generating queries for Gordon Brown poster and Lord Ashcroft. David Cameron's statement, "We're going to get rid of some of these quangos" sent users scurrying to determine what a quango is. Nick Clegg's repeated railing against renewing the Trident missile and David Cameron's repeated railing against the jobs tax, a one percent increase in National Insurance contributions, were the other issues generating queries. Overwhelming these debate-related queries was the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano and the closure of British air space.  During the three weeks, follow the run-up to the May 6 British general election by watching debate highlights on YouTube and searching web trends using Google Insights for Search.    |
Posted: 15 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT Last year, in our quest to minimize our carbon footprint (and keep people on their toes), we turned to an unlikely solution for mowing an overgrown field: goats. More than 200 goats from California Grazing have once again arrived at our Mountain View headquarters where they'll stay for over a week chomping away on grassy goodness. The cost of bringing in the goats is comparable to hiring lawn mowers for the same job and the green benefits are clear: the goats eliminate mower emissions, reduce noise pollution, restore plant species and fertilize while grazing. Don't worry, we're not going to be in the business of chèvre anytime soon, but in the meantime we're having a lot of fun watching our new colleagues.    |
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