Google today announced a change to its core Search algorithm that it says can better understand conversational search queries. Through improvements in natural language analysis, the company says that it has improved its ability to analyze queries that reflect how people speak in real life and recognize the relevant context.

google safari
Particularly for longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like "for" and "to" matter a lot to the meaning, Search should be able to understand the context of the words in a query, allowing users to search in a way that feels more natural.

The company says the improvements are down to a system it introduced last year called BERT, or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, which allows Google to analyze the context of a sentence a lot better and return more pertinent information.

In a blog post announcing the change, Google offers the following example to show off BERT's capabilities – a search for "2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa."

google search improved natural language

The word "to" and its relationship to the other words in the query are particularly important to understanding the meaning. It's about a Brazilian traveling to the U.S., and not the other way around. Previously, our algorithms wouldn't understand the importance of this connection, and we returned results about U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil. With BERT, Search is able to grasp this nuance and know that the very common word "to" actually matters a lot here, and we can provide a much more relevant result for this query.

Google reckons BERT will help Search better understand one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English, and it plans to bring the capability to more languages and locales over time.

As far web searches go, the changes usher in the "biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of search," said Pandu Nayak, a Google vice president.

Google is the default search engine in Apple's Safari web browser. Apart from its Google.com website, Google Search is also available on iOS through the company's namesake app. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google

Top Rated Comments

69Mustang Avatar
51 months ago
What we read:

The company says the improvements are down to a system it introduced last year called BERT, or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, which allows Google to analyze the context of a sentence a lot better and return more pertinent information.
What we were all thinking:
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Warputin Avatar
51 months ago
“Safari is the default browser in Apple's Safari web browser.” ??
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
51 months ago
I didn’t realize how shortchanged the color yellow was in the Google “G”

Wondering why, I Googled it but didn’t find a good answer.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature

iPhone 15 Models Feature New Setting to Strictly Prevent Charging Beyond 80%

Tuesday September 19, 2023 2:04 pm PDT by
All of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models feature a new battery health setting that prevents the devices from charging beyond 80% at all times when enabled, as confirmed by The Verge's Allison Johnson during a Q&A session today. The new setting is separate from the pre-existing Optimized Battery Charging feature on iPhones, which intelligently delays charging past 80% until a more...
iOS 17 and iPhones Feature

iOS 17: 10 New Features That Just Launched

Sunday September 17, 2023 12:35 pm PDT by
In June, Apple announced iOS 17 with a wide range of new features and changes for the iPhone. Following over three months of beta testing, the free software update will be released this Monday, September 18 for the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have recapped 10 key features coming to the iPhone with iOS 17, with additional features coming later this year. The update should be released to...
iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 With Bug Fixes, Plus iOS 17.0.2 for iPhone 15 Models

Thursday September 21, 2023 10:28 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates for the iPhone and the iPad, adding bug fixes to the new software. The iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates come just a few days after Apple launched iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. The software, which is build 21A340, can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. There is a...
emojipedia 15 1 emoji

Emoji Coming to Future iOS 17 Update Include Shaking Head, Brown Mushroom, Lime, Phoenix and More

Tuesday September 19, 2023 12:43 pm PDT by
As Apple was announcing new iPhone models last week, the Unicode Consortium was officially approving new emoji characters that are set to be added to smartphones starting in 2024. Mockup of new emoji from Emojipedia Approved Unicode 15.1 emoji include phoenix, lime, an edible mushroom, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake), and broken...