Google freshens up its search results

BANGALORE, INDIA: Just as Gmail with new looks, Google is also planning to change the way it looks at the Internet, as the company tries to keep its search engine relevant at a time when Web users want up-to-the-second search results.

According to Google Blogpost, the world’s most popular search engine announced on Thursday that it would alter some of the algorithms it uses to determine what search results it shows to its users. In a move that affects roughly 35 per cent of all Google searches, the company will now put more emphasis on the most recently-created results — news articles and social media posts that can be just a few minutes old.

The new version of Google’s algorithm will attempt to figure out whether the user’s search query is suited to the most recent results, such as a search for “Occupy Wall Street,” or not, such as a search for a cookie recipe.

“Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” quoted the company blogpost, Amit Singhal, a software engineer, Google’s search-ranking team as saying.

For certain recurring events, such as a company’s quarterly earnings or a presidential election, the search engine will now assume the user is looking for the most recent iteration, the blogpost added.

The new algorithm changes are based on a major search engine overhaul Google performed in the summer of 2010. Called Caffeine, the overhaul rearranged the company’s search algorithms to put far more emphasis on scouring the Web faster for more recently-created results, and focusing more on social media.