Google and semantic search

[SEOPants]

Found this on "news.com.au"

GOOGLE has modified its globally popular internet search service to understand relationships between words, as the company bids to better grasp what web users are looking for.

Along with taking into account intended meanings of search terms, Google beefed up results pages with longer snippets in summary paragraphs focused on what people appear to be seeking.

"We're deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search," members of the Google search team wrote in a blog post.

"We are now able to target more queries, more languages, and make our suggestions more relevant to what you actually need to know."

Internet search services have traditionally been based on matching key words typed into query boxes with words at websites or in other online data.

There has been growing interest in "semantic searches" that are smart enough to go beyond simply matching words to understanding what sentences or combinations of words mean.

A longstanding concern has been whether companies will be able to implement technology that can process the increasingly complex searches with the high speed that internet users have come to expect.

Microsoft recently confirmed it is testing a similar service, Kumo.com, which it hopes will be more popular than its Live Search. The Microsoft search engine has long been mired in a distant third place behind Yahoo! and market leader Google.

Google rolled out semantic search capabilities in 37 languages.

Examples given by Google included a search in Russian for "fortune-telling with cards" yielding search results that included "tarot" and "divination."

A Google search in English for "principles of physics" triggers suggestions to inquire about "big bang" and "quantum mechanics."

[Guard Dog]

This makes a lot of sense for Google (and any search engine for that matter). In order to make the searches more relevant, they have to keep out spam that is getting ever-smarter.

The 'Markov'd' content is seeping into SERPS in a big way. With semantic indexing, the search engines could effectively rule out quite a bit of spam-rewrites of existing content.

But - as Google gets smarter.... so will SERP manipulators. The never ending cycle of internet marketing life.

[SEOPants]

I like how the article says..
"to understand relationships between words"

Does that mean I will be able to some sort of word bowling, where we could put 10K articles over the net, put the term "handsome" with the word "casino"

And because of the number of associations handsome has with the word casino in those articles - they would be considered related?

I understand what it is trying to achieve, and it really makes sense - Google could have "related" content, and "direct" content in its search listings.

[dominique]

Google beefed up results pages with longer snippets in summary paragraphs focused on what people appear to be seeking.

Time to make sure all summaries are at their best...

[Nicolas-Johnson]

Hi,

Does this mean we should re-think the 140 character limitation? (140 being the limit that google displays, I know theoretically the limit allows up to 255)