Google: We're Scratching the Surface of Search

Head of search refers to Knowledge Graph as spearheading future of search engine.

Google believes it's just scratching the surface of search, with the firm stressing that the best is yet to come.

Speaking with The Guardian, the company's head of search Amit Singhal said how Google is amazed at how far search has come in the past ten years. However, pointing towards Knowledge Graph, he believes the best is yet to come.

Referring to his childhood love of Star Trek as inspiration, Singhal said, "I deeply believe now that shaped my thinking. The fascination with flying through galaxies and talking to a computer that could answer any question was always there for me. But of course I never imagined those problems would begin to be solved in my lifetime at all."

He then took out his phone and asks Google through voice what the population of London is and the height of Justin Bieber, with Google delivering answers through voice technology as well.

Discussing Google's Knowledge Graph, Singhal added that the firm's search engine technology is required to possess extensive knowledge of answers; it's required to understand that Justin Bieber is a human, what tallness actually is, the metric to answer in, as well as determining where to obtain such information from a reliable source.

Instead of simply offering a list of pages that mention the words one is searching for, Google Search has "begun to learn how to understand the real world of people, places and things".

"Nuance is what makes us human," he added. "The more accurate the machine gets, the lazier the questions become. So actually our lives get harder."

The Knowledge Graph, which launched during the May of 2012, provides users with more answers than solely links to pages. Google's ultimate goal is to "reduce every possible friction point between [the user], their thoughts and the information they want to find."

Google now processes every search through 570 million references, which results in 18 billion factual connections between them. Elsewhere, the company is currently developing A.I. search technology for intelligent PCs.

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