What will the search engine of the future look like?Every day we look for answers on Google. In 2012, we performed around 100 billion searches per month on the site. With just 15 years of existence, now it is Google itself that is looking for something.
Linked to almost 70% of all searches made on the internet, the company seeks to respond to a challenge brought about by the emergence of a new type of search, called “conversational”, “abstract” or “latent”. The difference between this trend and the model of the past is easy to understand.
Before, when we wanted some kind of answer from the internet, we would type keywords in a more or less “telegraphic” and unnatural way, lining up chile mobile database individual words. It was possible to type, for example, expressions like “cheap temaki restaurant in São Paulo”, if we wanted to find options for places to eat the Japanese delicacy in the capital of São Paulo for a reasonable price.
We have been trained to construct expressions in this abrupt, halting, caveman-like manner because we have discovered, almost intuitively, that this is the most effective way of producing the hits we expect from a search engine.
It turns out that in real life, no one says phrases like “cheap temaki restaurant in São Paulo.” The most likely formulation for a query like this would be something like “Where can I eat temaki in São Paulo without spending a lot?” – an elaborate expression that might not yield the best results in the traditional model.
Algorithms tend towards Conversational Search
“Conversational” search is precisely the type of search that responds to demands expressed in the most natural way possible. This means both approaching the most common enunciation of some phrases and considering the logic of the user’s needs and reasoning in the search process.
Google is aware of the need to make its service more suited to the abstract functioning of a search. It is for this reason that it recently launched its new algorithm, nicknamed Hummingbird , a mechanism that seeks not only to process the combination of words but also, and most importantly, to understand concepts and meanings of complex formulation.
Hummingbird , which means “hummingbird” in English, was given this nickname because the algorithm, like the tropical bird, promises to be precise and agile. The change should not alter the logic of SEO tactics , but it is still profound and important. Considered by Google to be the most significant update to its product since 2001, the new mechanism is capable of handling more conversational demands and delivering exactly what the user needs. Not being able to deliver this would be a huge risk – especially since there are competitors on the horizon.