Tech Report: Google Improved Software Makes Search More Conversational

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Google has made changes to its search algorithm aimed at making the process more conversational. For example if you use your voice to ask a question on mobile it can handle follow-up questions.

The company's software improvements are part of an update called Hummingbird.

This comes as Google celebrates its 15th anniversary this month and we look back at the way the innovative company has changed the way we interact with computers.

You can ask how tall the Eiffel Tower is and it will answer and then it recognizes my simple retort of "who designed it?" and answers correctly, referring back to the landmark in Paris. It's almost like asking a human being.

Now having said that, Search Engine Optimization is a multi-billion dollar-business, some of its legitimate and some is sleazy quite frankly. A lot of people depend on Google search results for promoting themselves or their business. People try to use tricks to sort of fool Google by planting web links, but the company is constantly trying to thwart those tricks with new algorithms.

That seems to be the goal; to make it much more intelligent like you're asking a librarian who can actually do real research for you and fully know what you're talking about.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

In:
• Google