Google has released a significant update to its search algorithm, in an effort to make search results more timely.
The new tweak is one of the biggest changes ever made to the search giant's algorithm and will reportedly impact over a third of all searches.
“Even if you don't specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent,” says Google.
In a blog post announcing the update, Google fellow Amit Singhal says: “If I search for [olympics], I probably want information about next summer's upcoming Olympics, not the 1900 Summer Olympics (the only time my favourite sport, cricket, was played).
“Google Search uses a freshness algorithm, designed to give you the most up-to-date results, so even when I just type [olympics] without specifying 2012, I still find what I'm looking for.”
Singhal says Google is building on its Caffeine Web indexing system that was completed last year.
“We're making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35% of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date, relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.”
Freshness levels
The searches will now favour results for recent events or hot trending topics, giving the latest information first. Searches for regularly occurring events, such as conferences, will also now yield results for the most recent event first. Other things that change frequently, such as sporting results and financials, will be subject to the new algorithm.
“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,” says Google.
Analysts say the new algorithm serves to prove that Google has had to improve the relevance of its search results in order to ward off competition from services like Twitter and Facebook, and the resultant expectation of live updates.
In 2009, Google created real-time search, in collaboration with Twitter. That contract expired this year, however, and a new agreement could not be reached.
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