March 26, 2009

You may have heard that Google is joining the race for the semantic search engine. Semantic search is the capability for a computer to understand what you're searching for based on the meaning behind your words instead of just pulling out keyword-based results. Google is up against a wide range of competitors for the semantic crown including newcomers Kumo, Microsoft's upcoming redesign of Live Search, and Wolfram Alpha-a search engine making some outlandish and unverifiable claims.

Now when you search on Google, the company claims, its search engine will be able to understand and associate your queries with related keywords. It will then display more relevant related search terms at the bottom of the page. For example, Google says that if you search for "principles of physics," their search engine will "understand that ‘angular momentum,' ‘special relativity,' ‘big bang' and ‘quantum mechanic' are related terms that could help you find what you need." These subjects are then displayed as related searches at the bottom of the page.

Now I don't know about you, but I am more likely to search for historical events, famous people, or a news story rather than the inner workings of physics. So I thought a test using more common subjects would be a better measure of the new Google.

For my search I wanted to know who the quarterback was for the 1979 New York Jets. Not exactly brain surgery, but it is still a niche subject with related searches that might be of interest. To begin my search I typed in, "1979 quarterback new york jets."