Google upcoming major change, evil ?

Google is known for keeping on top of newer technology, after all it does have competitors in Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Bing, in terms of search engines. To stay on top of the game and remain dominant in the internet market, Google is working on developing a more in-depth search engine experience. Over the years, we have seen the changes including Panda update, or the search engine guessing – with mostly accurate results – what the person is searching for before they have finished typing the request. The expected new changes though, may cause some to raise an eyebrow.

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“Over the next few months, Google’s search engine will begin spitting out more than a list of blue Web links. It will also present more facts and direct answers to queries at the top of the search-results page. The changes to search are among the biggest in the company’s history and could affect millions of websites that rely on Google’s current page-ranking results. At the same time, they could give Google more ways to serve up advertisements.[...] One person briefed on Google’s plans said the shift to semantic search could directly impact the search results for 10% to 20% of all search queries, or tens of billions per month.”

The name of the search – Semantic Search – does not sound positive, it seems more as though Google is trying to get into the user’s mind. This is true, in a sense. In trying to streamline the search process, Google’s new project – which may not be complete for years – focuses on a very specific set of search results. According to executives at Google, the results will be fine honed and may not even direct users to a website for more complex questions. If someone types in a specific question such as “what is the height of Mt. Everest?” for example, Google will likely just display the result rather than direct users to websites that contain the result.

What does this mean for user experience? In short, searching will be made easier, for some. While many users search for specific information, others simply like to browse through websites that pertain to their search inquiry. Another question that has been raised is the fact that user ads are targeted at specific keywords and it is still unclear how the new search functions will impact the user ads.

All in all, Google seems to be worried most about Facebook, the social media giant that has access to high amounts of historical data that Google does not. Facebook may eventually become one of the most powerful internet companies if it ever decided to branch out and Google needs to act now to remain a competitor.

[via]