Google puts 'freshness' in search algorithm 

As if its search were not "fresh" enough, search giant Google has tweaked its search algorithms further to bring users more recent and relevant results.

 

Google fellow Amit Singhal said the algorithms will automatically look for the most recent results even if the user does not specify it in his or her search.

 

"We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness," Singhal said in a blog post.

 

Singhal said Google Search uses a freshness algorithm, designed to give the most up-to-date results.

 

With this update in the algorithm, searching for current events like [occupy oakland protest], or for the latest news about the [nba lockout] will yield "more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old."

 

"Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old," Singhal said.

 

On the other hand, searches for regularly recurring events such as annual conferences will also bring up the most recent event.

 

Searches for information that changes often, but is not really a hot topic or a recurring event will also bring up the most recent results.

 

On the other hand, Singhal said there are cases where results that are a few years old might still be useful, like recipes.

 

"Different searches have different freshness needs. This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers," he said. — TJD, GMA News