For engineers at search engines such as Google and Yahoo, the holy grail is what’s known as “user intent.” This means being able to figure out what kind of search results the user wants, even when they don’t specifically spell it out in their query.
For example, does someone who is searching for “Apple” want results about the fruit or the computer and iPod maker? When someone searches for “Sistine Chapel,” are they more likely to be looking for photos or a links to information about the landmark?
Google has addressed a lot of these issues by knowing your search history (i.e. if you visit gadget blogs a lot, you probably mean the iPod maker when you type “Apple”) and by introducing “universal search” which includes videos, photos and blogs in the main Google web search as opposed to segregating those results in separate search engines.
Google just announced its latest effort in its never ending quest to get better at guessing user intent.
When you search for something like “restaurants” or “dentists” Google will attempt to detect your physical location and deliver you local listings (in addition to the usual search results). This saves you the trouble typing in an extra word, such as “Orlando” before “restaurants.”
How does Google do this? In most cases, it will match your IP address to a broad geographic location, such as the nearest city. But this isn’t perfect. For instance, when I Googled “pizza,” these are the local results that came up:
That’s because the IP address of the computer I use at work is based in Chicago, home of the corporate parent of the Orlando Sentinel, the Tribune Co.
In that case, Google lets you correct the issue by clicking on the “Change location” link at the top of the local search results.
You can enter your zipcode, or, if you don’t want to get that specific, you can enter your city.
Like a lot of new Google features, this one will no doubt cause some alarm among people who think Google is too powerful and knows too much about us. But if you are OK with it, the new feature will save you some time.
Perhaps one day when we place our mouse cursor on the Google search box, we won’t even have to type anything and Google will read our mind and fill out the search box for us.
By Etan Horowitz
April 6, 2009
source: blogs.orlandosentinel.com