According to Google Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, Google has a new search strategy to provide answers and not just links.
“We can literally compute the right answer,”
Schmidt said, speaking about technology advances, in an interview conducted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the D9 All Things Digital Conference on June 1, 2011.
Answers can now be computed algorithmically in response to search requests, instead of supplying a list of indexed links. Using information provided by your IP address, and location, Google has the capabilities to provide answers based on your identity, even if you have no browsing history or social data online.
“Identity is incredibly useful because in the online world you need to know who you are dealing with.” Schmidt said. “We could compute a better answer, because we’ll know more about you.”
Schmidt was questioned about strategy shift and improving search results, using technology that has not been made public at this time. Schmidt stated that they come up with 100’s of improvements every quarter that the public don’t see.
Google is currently attempting to include more social data in search results. Schmidt made mention of recent changes, such as the Google Panda Update, that improved search results by removing low quality content from the rankings. The changes affected 12 percent of search results.
Schmidt only touched on the subject of the new search technology and did not provide details. He went on to speak about Google’s Android mobile operating system which has become the best selling Smartphone platform in the world.
Schmidt also talked about Google Wallet, a Near Field Communications (NFC) based payment system, to be launched in the near future. People who own an Android phone can utilize Google’s mobile wallet and deals strategy to purchase products and services online. Google Wallet has been compared to Groupon, and similar to Groupon, Google Wallet will offer discounts and loyalty rewards.
A demonstration of Google Wallet was presented at the conference. Using a single tap on an online store tag offering a 20 percent discount, a pair of jeans was purchased, the discount was applied, and the purchase was charged to the credit card stored in the Google Wallet. Google will not charge retailers, or consumers for this service, instead making their money from offers similar to the Groupon system.
Schmidt focused on the launch of Google’s +1, which became active this week. Compared to Facebook’s “Like”, Google +1, allows users to share their favourite websites with their friends. In order to use the +1 feature, people must create a Google profile, similar to a Facebook profile. These +1s have the potential to increase traffic and revenue to websites. Online merchants will be able to track their +1’s to determine what is popular. It is believed that Google will also factor +1’s into their organic ranking system. Paid ads, such as Adsense will also be affected by the +1s.
Because most Google users do not set up a profile as they do on Facebook, it is difficult to predict the success of the +1 button for online merchants and publishers. Marketers are hopeful that this will be a new revenue stream.
Watch videos of the interview with Eric Schmidt at: http://allthingsd.com/20110531/googles-executive-chairman-eric-schmidt-live-at-d9/?refcat=conferences. Yes, the Internet giant Google also owns YouTube.