Google just announced some new updates for Search, which are going to be benefitable for brands, but are mainly focused on helping people find the information they need. The updates include improvements in spelling recommendation, passage identification in texts, ‘hum to search’, subtopics in search queries, and key moments in videos.
The improved spelling predictions are going to help users find better matches of what they are looking for. According to Google, one in every 10 queries each day is misspelled. To improve the ability to understand misspelled words, Google is introducing a new spelling algorithm that uses a ‘'deep neural net’' to significantly improve the ability to decipher misspellings.
Google is also introducing a new search algorithm, which will be able to index individual passages of text within web pages, and will therefore be able to locate more specific information on a site relative to a user query. Google had already been working on this update for a while, and is making it more widely available now.
Google claims that this technology will ‘'improve 7% of search queries across all languages’' once it is rolled out globally. This update is also likely to have an impact on ad placement and will be particularly relevant for high-volume pages.
The ‘hum to search’ feature is a result of Google’s new audio algorithms, which are able to identify songs based on a user’s humming or whistling of a song’s tune.
Subtopics for search queries is an addition that will contribute to a greater diversity of content when a user searches for something broad. For instance, if a user searches for ‘'home exercise equipment’', Google will identify relevant subtopics like ‘'budget equipment’', ‘'premium picks’', or ‘'small space ideas’’. It will then show a wider range of content on the search results page.
This feature could be an important SEO consideration for brands, as they will need to match their listings with each relevant category, based on commonly used filters or terms. Google plans to reveal more information regarding this feature soon and will be rolling it out by the end of 2020.
Google has also been working on indexing certain sections of YouTube videos for some time now, and seems to be working on integrating its accessibility within search queries now.
As explained by Google, it is using a new AI-driven approach, with the help of which, deep semantics of a video can be understood, and its key moments can be automatically identified. This will allow users to navigate moments of video like chapters of a book. Google claims that by the end of this year, 10% of the searches on its site will be using this new approach.
In addition to the search tools, Google is also introducing some Covid-19 tools to help businesses, including displaying more specific information about opening hours, updated requirements, improved statistic searches, new tools for journalists, and new AR search features for products.
