Search is no doubt the tech giant’s number one product. Google will not be Google if not for its search engine. It’s been almost two decades since the service was introduced on the web. The brand has since evolved into a bigger company, offering numerous web services, products, software, and hardware. Searching or should we say “googling” will always be an important activity in one’s digital life whether you admit it or not.
Google has improved search in a lot of ways. The changes are not only aesthetic but also in function and as how people need the search engine results and pages to be. Google frequently changes algorithms to ensure that people are not directed to bad links or content farms. The company has somehow achieved the idea that netizens are presented with related and accurate information as much as possible.
The past years, fake news proliferate all over the internet. We don’t know where exactly they are coming from but Google is stepping up to fight those low quality, misleading, and offensive articles that are being spread all over the web. To fight this issue, Google is doing some structural changes in Search in order for them to still provide relevant information all the time.
Google is releasing algorithmic updates to boost more authoritative content. Evaluation methods have been improved while new Search Quality Rater Guidelines are made available. The goal is to demote low-quality content. Some ranking changes have been made as well to surface more authoritative pages.
Google is also now using direct feedback tools. Flagging content that are not useful is made easier with direct feedback tools. You can now inform Google if a search result is unhelpful or sensitive. Google also wants to offer more transparency this time that is why the company just published policies on Autocomplete on the Help Center.
SOURCE: The Keyword (Google)
