SemanticSearch
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What Siri foretells for the future of semantic search
Siri is a step forward for iOS users who can use the virtual assistant to set reminders and send messages, but for developer and entrepreneur Ndav Gur, Siri represents more. "Siri has made strong headway into literally understanding you (voice to text) but more importantly about deriving meaning from what a user has just said," Gur writes in a recent TechCrunch post. What makes Siri exciting is its ability to support natural language now and semantic search in the future. Semantic search moves us away from keyword-based search and into queries based on concepts. Using semantic search, users get knowledge as a result, instead of just information. It's like asking about the weather and getting advice on what to wear, instead of just the local temperature. Siri is ahead of the game in this arena and is such an "existential threat" to Google's keyword search that Google has recently announced that it's working on its own semantic search algorithm. Gur is the founder and CEO of Desti, a company that created its own virtual personal assistant for travelers. You can read more about Siri and semantic search in his guest post on TechCrunch. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Google launches Knowledge Graph today, wants to understand real things (video)
Americans and Brits might chuckle at their respective understandings of words like chips, pants and biscuits -- a search engine, however, can't be quite so discerning. As it turns out, Google actually thinks it can, and has been working on its Knowledge Graph project to prove it. Beginning today, English searches from Google.com might start seeing a new box appearing alongside (unless you happened to see it via the live-trial). If there is more than one potential meaning to your search term, Google will ask you to specify (trousers, not underwear, for example). Likewise, when it's more confident it knows what you mean, you'll get a summary box instead. (A celebrities place of birth, favorite cheese etc..) Google's Shashidhar Thakur, tech lead for search, told us "We think of this as our pragmatic approach to semantic search." And by pragmatic, he means that for the last two years, Google has been working to map the "Universe of things," not just webpages. Over 500 million things, in fact, creating a total of 3.5 billion attributes and connections so far. The hope is, that as this technology evolves, you'll be able to ask more complex questions, like "Which US airports have a Cinnabon stall." Or, you know, other such deep and meaningful queries. If you see some info, and happen to know better, there's a feedback system, so you can let Google know, hopefully making Knowledge Graph continually evolve in accuracy. While it's only rolling out for English searches, it's not just desktop, with mobile and tablet search getting the goods too. There are plans to spread this out to other languages, but no specific dates for this just now.
First signs of Google's new 'semantic search' spotted, put to good use
So, Google wasn't merry-dancing when it promised to update its search engine with new "semantic" algorithms. One of our readers sent in the screen grab above, which shows what happens when they search for "Howard Carter." In addition to all the regular links, there's a box on the right that seems to be distinctly aware of who that poor fellow was (er, happy birthday old bean). We haven't been able to replicate these results, which probably means it's a limited roll-out at this time. Nevertheless, if we're right, then this archaeologist's name will have wormed its way through Mountain View's constantly updated knowledge database, which we're told can link facts together rather than just match keywords. Carter's cause of death? Hmm, clearly the system still as a few things to learn about mummies and curses. [Thanks, Joseph]
Google to switch on 'semantic search' within months, emphasize things as well as words
A search engine should be about more than just keywords. MC Hammer believes that passionately and Google must do too, because over the next few months and years it'll gradually adjust its own algorithms to put greater emphasis on "semantic search". Under this system, search queries are run through a vast knowledge database that discovers relationships with other words and facts. A Mountain View exec explained it thus: If you search for "Lake Tahoe", you won't just get ranked websites containing those two words but also key attributes about the lake, such as its location, altitude, average temperature and Bigfoot population. If a piece of knowledge isn't the in the ever-expanding database, the search engine will still use semantic search to help it recognize and evaluate information held on websites. In doing this, Big G hopes to compete with social networks that are amassing their own valuable (and sometimes intrusive) databases full of personal information, while also encouraging people to stay longer on its site and see more targeted ads. Google, who is Viviane Reding?
