Google made a boat load of announcements last night around Google Search. Now, while some of the announcements were things already launched, many were new. Google covered changes to BERT, how it understands passages and subtopics on a page, to humming to Google and health and safety features and so much more.
Here is the video of these announcements if you prefer to watch over read:
Let me quickly break down the more interesting things from this announcement that I think you all will care about.
BERT
BERT is now used on almost every English query. As you know, when it launched a year ago it was used on 10% of English queries. Google said "today we're excited to share that BERT is now used in almost every query in English, helping you get higher quality results for your questions."
There is nothing you can really do to optimize for this but Google should be better at understanding your content and how it related to the user's query.
Spelling
Google said it has a new spelling algorithm that uses "a deep neural net to significantly improve our ability to decipher misspellings." Google said this change "makes a greater improvement to spelling than all of our improvements over the last five years." Whoa.
I'll use some of Glenn's tweets because he summed up a lot of these changes nicely:
Search On 2020: Breakthroughs in AI. 1 in 10 search queries is misspelled. Google looks at all the misspellings & drives "did you mean" tech. A new spelling algo will be rolled out that can better model the spelling errors. Runs in under 3 ms. pic.twitter.com/hguocgUtoO
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 15, 2020
Passages
Google can now index parts of a page, a passage within all of the page's content, instead of all of the content on a page. Previously, Google said it does not and cannot do that, but now it can. Google said "we've recently made a breakthrough in ranking and are now able to not just index web pages, but individual passages from the pages." Google said this helps them improve search queries globally, in all languages, and will impact 7% of the search results! How, it helps them better understand the relevancy of specific passages, not just the overall page, so it can "find that needle-in-a-haystack information you’re looking for."
Search On 2020: Whoa. Google can index passages of a webpage vs. the whole page. New algo can zoom into a passage that answers a question and ignores the rest of the page. Starting next month. pic.twitter.com/oRwBS7DOIm
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 15, 2020
This is impressive! How can you optimize for it? Maybe make sure your passages on your pages are not a big mess?
This is probably one of the most interesting announcements - I covered this in more detail on Search Engine Land after talking to Google about this. It is worth a read.
Subtopics
Google also said it "applied neural nets to understand subtopics around an interest, which helps deliver a greater diversity of content when you search for something broad." Google said by the end of the year it will "understand relevant subtopics, such as budget equipment, premium picks, or small space ideas, and show a wider range of content for you on the search results page."
Key moments expanded
Key moments, "in this video" chapters feature that launched a year or so ago, will soon be used in "10 percent of searches on Google will use this new technology," Google said.
Using AI, we're better able to detect key parts of videos and help people jump directly into the right moments without creators having to manually tag them. By the end of the year, 10% of Google Searches will use this technology. #SearchOn pic.twitter.com/Kf3pyxYMz7
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 15, 2020
Popular times, COVID info and more maps
Well, I covered the issues with popular times and wait time this morning. Google talked about this over here saying "Google Maps’ popular times algorithms have long been able to identify busyness patterns for a place. With social distancing measures established and businesses adjusting hours or even closing temporarily due to COVID-19, our historical data was no longer as reliable in predicting what current conditions would be. To make our systems more nimble, we began favoring more recent data from the previous four to six weeks to quickly adapt to changing patterns for popular times and live busyness information–with plans to bring a similar approach to other features like wait times soon."
Google also added health help for local including "live busyness information without even searching for a place" and "live busyness information for your destination when getting directions." Plus COVID health and safety information, which we covered.
Make more informed decisions about the places you visit. Soon you’ll be able to see how busy a place is directly on the map and get safety info—like mask requirements and temperature checks—on business profiles across Google Search and @GoogleMaps. #SearchOn pic.twitter.com/fFBORpxf8J
— Google (@Google) October 15, 2020
Google Lens updates
Google released a slew of updates for Google Lens searches. Including tap an image to discover products as you browse, get help with homework problems and virtually bring your dream car to your driveway.
Your phone’s camera can do more than just take selfies. Soon with #GoogleLens & AR, you can...
— Google (@Google) October 15, 2020
👗 Tap an image to discover products as you browse
📚 Get help with homework problems
🚗 Virtually bring your dream car to your driveway#SearchOn pic.twitter.com/YzhSi7YRPt
Search On 2020: New learning element of the Knowledge Graph can be used via Lens when taking a photo of math problem. Hmm, very interesting to hear about that new aspect of the Knowledge graph. pic.twitter.com/ty6plKpst9
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 15, 2020
Oh and you can hum a song:
Do you know that song that goes, “da na na na na do do?” We bet Google Search does. 😉 Next time a song is stuck in your head, just #HumToSearch into the Google app and we’ll identify the song. Perfect pitch not required → https://t.co/xOFYTukjOk #SearchOn pic.twitter.com/3LRN4HJMKG
— Google (@Google) October 15, 2020
Search On 2020: Shopping: Starting next month, long press on mobile on any image and Lens will help you find similar items. Style engine technology understands how to make apparel based on style images. Wow. That's how you can shop what you see via Lens. pic.twitter.com/KtML3Jki2n
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 15, 2020
Search On 2020: AR will bring the showroom to you. Search for it on Google and see a realistic model in front of you. You can zoom in to see details, view against backdrops, or your driveway. Coming soon (next few months). pic.twitter.com/KfkoeRDpbb
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 15, 2020
Plus some updates to Duplex and Google Assistant.
It is a lot but SEOs are awesome at change.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
